Yellow Beauty, Dragon Kunoichi
by Simusar
Summary: 8yr old Naru Uzumaki is offered what she's always wanted, a family that wants to adopt her, but the family is from Vale, a place far away from her home of Konoha. With the adoption comes a new name, that name is Yang Xiao Long. Rated M to be safe
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I do not own Naruto, or RWBY; please support the official release.**

She was sitting in the office of the Third Hokage; her shoulder length, blonde hair dropping around the sides of her young face, hiding her violet eyes, thinking over the offer she was being given. Naru Uzumaki was eight years old, an orphan who spent her entire life wondering why the people in the village ignored her. She never knew her parents; her earliest memories being how mean the lady at the orphanage was to her. She wore a loose fitting orange shirt black shorts and sandals. Sitting near her, was a kind man with black hair and silver eyes. He had come from far away, as an ambassador from someplace called Vale. One the one hand, his offer was all she ever wanted, he offered her a place in his family, to adopt her, and give her a home that would love her. On the other hand, she would be leaving her village, the only place she's ever known. The man wasn't alone, sitting next to him was a beautiful woman with long, red hair, holding a little girl, a few years younger than Naru, on her lap; they said her name was Ruby. As soon as they met, Ruby took a liking to Naru, finally meeting someone her age she could talk to and play with.

The man, Taiyang Xiao Long, had been speaking with the Hokage, when Naru entered the office followed by the masked ANBU, Inu. Taiyang had been informed of Naru's status as Konoha's Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi by the Hokage. Taiyang's wife, Summer Rose, didn't care about the beast sealed within the little blonde girl, instead she saw what she considered a crime; no child should be left to grow up without the love of a parent. Hiruzen Sarutobi mulled over the situation carefully. On the one hand, Naru would finally get the family and love she deserved, removed away from the scornful eyes of the villagers. But on the other, the only remnant of his successor, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, would be leaving, those same villagers never knowing the tie that bound Naru to their savior. It was a closely guarded secret that Naru was the only child of Minato and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki; both had died the day Naru was born. While he was hesitant to let the little girl go, he knew, in his heart, that the life these two foreigners offered would be better for her. All that was left was for Naru to decide, did she want to stay in Konoha, the only home she'd known, despite all the hostility? Or accept the offer, and be adopted by this family, and move to a place where no one knew of her burden?

"I know this is a lot to take in, Naru," Hiruzen started, hoping the girl would accept the family that wanted her in their lives; the family she deserved. "The choice is up to you."

"Will I be able to come and visit?" violet eyes pleaded.

"Yes," Taiyang answered. "As ambassadors, Summer and I will be making regular trips here, and when your schooling allows it, you will be more than welcome to come with us."

Only two in the room had yet to voice an opinion on the matter, the first being Inu, standing next to the child he had volunteer to protect, his silver hair sticking out from behind his mask at a weird angle, and the large man with long grey hair and red clothes, standing next to the Hokage. Jiraiya had made a special trip back to Konoha for this meeting, his last stay here having introduced him to the lovable brat sitting in the chair. He had found her as a group of six drunken civilians had her cornered in an ally, makeshift clubs in hand, ready to take the life of the girl. Needless to say, those six had disappeared for a full week before they returned to their families, fearful of ever crossing paths with the little demon container again. After the encounter, Jiraiya had carried the still crying child to the Hokage's tower, the trembling form of his apprentice's orphaned child clutching tightly as tears run down her whiskered cheeks. "Don't worry, little maelstrom," Jiraiya's affectionate nickname for the girl drawing her attention. "I'll stop by to visit you often to give you some training and see how you're doing," he finished with a smile towards his Goddaughter. She had earned that nickname the morning after they met, when he awoke to his face covered in paint after sleeping in, the girl hiding and giggling at the trick she had played on the older man. The two spent that day playing; seeing the joy light up in her violet eyes sparked a warmth in his heart, a warmth he had thought extinguished when news of her parents' death had made it to him. He was the one who had given her the plush toad doll she clutched to her chest; 'Gama-chan' she called it.

Hearing these words brought a smile to the girl's face, as her fear started to ebb away. "Ok, I'll go," she said, looking shyly towards the three who would make up her new family, seeing nothing but warm, welcoming smiles in return.

With the agreement set by all parties, all that was left was the paperwork, both Hiruzen and Taiyang producing adoption papers from their respective countries. "One last thing," Hiruzen said before they continued with the signing. "It would probably be best if her name was changed, to prevent any 'bad' people from looking for her," the 'bad' part not sitting well with anyone in the room; the two young girls being the only ones not understanding.

"What do you mean by 'bad people' Jiji?" Naru asked with her head tilted to the side in confusion.

"He means the people that may try to find you… to hurt you," Summer answered for the men in the room.

"Why would they want to hurt me?" came the response, the words tainted with fear.

"Because people like them can't appreciate how special you are," Taiyang said with a comforting smile.

"Do you have a name in mind?" Hiruzen asked calmly, already admiring how the two were already trying to protect the girl.

Taiyang and Summer looked into each other's eyes briefly before nodding and smiling. "We were thinking of the name, Yang Xiao Long," the answered together, looking over at Naru to see what she thought. After a few seconds of playing the name over in her head, the blonde girl nodded her head and smiled. With everyone in agreement, Hiruzen, Taiyang, and Summer set about signing the paperwork, releasing Naru Uzumaki from Konoha, officially changing her name to Yang Xiao Long, adding her as a citizen to the Kingdom of Vale, and the legal daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose.

The last in the room to speak, the normally silent Inu, stepped forward, "Hokage-sama, I would like to request permission to accompany Naru-chan, at least until they arrive safely in Vale,"

The old Hokage regarded the ANBU with a smile, Kakashi Hatake had sworn, on his sensei's death, to protect the child, requesting the position to guard the girl. He himself had personally escorted many rowdy civilians to the prisons for attempting to harm the blonde child. He had also paid, out of his own pocket, to buy her food while she was in school; he liked to believe that he was responsible for her love of Red Bean Soup. Her love of ramen however… that came from Hiruzen and her teacher, Iruka Umino; they would take her to the ramen stand some times and let her eat to her hearts content. "Permission granted… Kakashi," he responded, smiling. With the acknowledgment, Kakashi removed his mask, turning to smile at the girl, his lower face covered by a mask, and his left eye by his head band.

As the last of the paperwork was finalized, Naru was sent off with Kakashi to pack her things that she wanted to take with her. The Hokage also sending off messenger birds to the shinobi families that had accepted little Naru for who she was, instead of what she had sealed inside her; the birds carried word of Naru's departure in the morning, inviting any willing to attend. With the final signatures signed, Hiruzen and Taiyang stood, each extending a hand forward; a firm hand shake and smile being the last seal needed. "Take care of her, she has a lot of potential," the old Hokage said.

"We will," Summer stated confidently, while holding a sleeping Ruby in her lap.

"We never turn our backs on our friends, or family… believe it," Taiyang finished with a smirk, before the two released their grip.

"She doesn't yet know of the Kyubi sealed inside her," Jiraiya began. "And I would like for her to grow up normally… well as normally as she can anyway, before she finds out," the toad sage continued, looking between the two parents. "If you let me, I would like to be the one to tell her, on her 16th birthday; that's also the day I plan to tell her about her birth parents," he finished, already planning out his spy routes so he could keep tabs on his Goddaughter, clutching a small, gold locket in his palm. Inside the locket were two pictures, one of a handsome blonde man with spiky hair, and the other of a beautiful woman with long red hair.

"That sounds fair, I just hope she doesn't resent us for not telling her sooner," Taiyang said, not wanting anything to break apart his family.

"As long as you show her the love she needs, she could never resent you," Hiruzen replied, he knew the girl well, even after everything that's happened to her, she still loved the village that had been her home her whole life.

The next morning came quickly, the sun peeking over the trees that surrounded the hidden village. At the western gate, a small group was gathering to send off the little blonde girl. The Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Inuzuka clans, as well as Iruka, Jiraiya, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen and his daughter, and the Hokage all gathered to see little Naru off on her new adventure with her new family. One by one each of the children came up, said their good byes, hugged, and gave gifts to the girl that had been their friend. Shikamaru gave her a strategy game for children, a copy of one they played together. Ino gave her a scarf, orange, Naru's favorite color. Chouji handed her, and Ruby, some cookies his mother had baked for them. Kiba's gift was a puppy that the two girls instantly fell in love with; they instantly named the dog 'Zwei'. Iruka knelt down and gave the blonde his Hitai-ate, smiling as the girl clutched it tightly in her hand. Jiraiya was next, handing Naru her plush toad doll, having repaired the tears and replacing the missing parts, seeing her eyes light up brought a smile to his face. Teuchi and Ayame, of Ichiraku Ramen handed their favorite customer a booklet of coupons for their stand. Finally, the Hokage stepped forward, showing her a small bundle of scrolls, "Naru, these are for you when you're a little older; they have different techniques that should help you out with your training. I want you to know, that no matter how far away you are, you will always have a home here, and a place in our hearts," the old man said as the violet eyed girl wrapped her arms around the man she considered to be her grandfather, tears in both of their eyes.

With all the goodbyes said, the family, with their new addition, and Kakashi set off towards the clearing where Bullhead Airship rested. As the ship's engines turned on, and the craft started to lift off, one thing went through Naru's mind, 'Today, I am no longer Naru Uzumaki, from now on, I am Yang Xiao Long.' With that thought, the ship sped off towards the Kingdom of Vale, and towards her new life.

The trip took several hours, the dull hum of the engines luring Yang's eyes closed, her restless night prior slackening her grip on consciousness. Soon she was in a deep sleep, laying on the seats of the Bullhead, with her head resting peacefully on Summer's lap, that fact bringing an affectionate smile to the woman's face as she idly examined the features of her new daughter. The adoption of little Naru had been for political reasons, to help secure a treaty between Konoha and Vale, but the woman was more than happy to accept this new addition to her family. Hearing the story of this violet eyed girl from Hiruzen had caused an ache in her heart; part of her was mad at the village leader, couldn't he do something to help the girl? She didn't understand the politics of the shinobi world, all the assassinations, the espionage, the cold war they seemed to have going on at all times. Then there was the shinobi academy, training children to be killers at such a young age; while the huntsman academies weren't too much better, beginning training at 12-13 years, but by that time, the shinobi academies were graduating children into their military ranks. As it was, Naru… no Yang, had already been through two years of shinobi training, enough to survive in the village, but nowhere near enough to survive the harsh world she was born into.

Summer was brought out of her thoughts when she noticed little Ruby climb onto the seat next to her new sister, laying down while Yang instinctively wrapped her arm around the smaller girl. Taiyang and Kakashi were talking about differences in culture, training, and types of missions, when they glanced over, seeing the two girls sleeping peacefully together, a smile on both of their faces; Taiyang's for seeing his family grow; and Kakashi's for seeing Naru safe and at peace. 'Minato-sensei, Kushina, your baby girl is finally going to get the love you always wanted to give her,' Kakashi thought as the aircraft continued on course.

The trip was long, but finally the island of Patch was in sight; in the morning Taiyang and Yang would travel to Beacon to finalize the adoption paperwork with Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of the prestigious academy, getting her added as a citizen of the Kingdom of Vale. Tonight though, tonight was the first night their newest family member would spend in her new home. The negotiations had been going on ever since the two cultures had discovered each other's existence. The first demand for the treaty had actually been a political marriage, one to tie the two nations together, but both Taiyang and Hiruzen had been against the idea. They wanted the girl to grow up normally, well as normal as an eight year old, orphan, demon container, moving from her less than appreciative home, to another country, on another continent, to start a new life, could hope to be. Political marriages rarely ever concerned the happiness of the two actually being wed, leading to a strained relationship of two people who eventually grew to resent and hate each other. They wanted Yang to marry someone she loved, not someone she was forced to be with.

After they landed, Taiyang picked up Yang, and Summer picked up Ruby, carrying the two sleeping girls inside the Xiao Long house while Kakashi carried and two of his Shadow Clones carried the baggage they had brought with them. The house was big, more than enough for the couple, the two children, and guests. For the time being, they elected to put Yang in Ruby's room, at least until they finished setting up Yang's room; they wanted to let her pick out the paint color and bed spread. "We have a spare bedroom that you can use, until you head back to Konoha," Taiyang offered, Summer smiling her agreement from beside her husband.

"Thank you very much for your hospitality, if it is alright, I would like to accompany you to see this 'Headmaster' tomorrow," the silver-haired shinobi responded while looking down at the girl that was like a niece to him.

"I think Yang would be happy to have you with us, having something familiar around when she goes to a new place, especially one as… different from what she's used to as Beacon," Taiyang answered, closing the door to the room as they left the girls to sleep.

The next morning found Kakashi sitting outside on a tree branch, watching the sun rise, while lost in his thoughts of the past eight years. Inside the house, Taiyang and Summer walked quietly to Ruby's bedroom, opening the door softly while peeking inside. To their delight, they saw the two girls, asleep on one bed, Yang with her arm protectively over the younger Ruby, the doll, Gama-chan, tucked in between them. The two adults gently shut the door, before walking towards the kitchen to prepare breakfast; they had a couple hours before they needed to leave for Beacon. The girls woke to the smell of breakfast cooking, the delicious aroma wafting through the space between the door and the floor. Violet and silver eyes cracked open slowly, barely recognizing each other before both started to drift closed again. Ruby's eyes shot open with a start, not yet realizing who it was in her bed, and with a yelp of surprise, she scooted backwards before falling off of the small bed onto the floor with a thump. The smaller girl's yell awoke Yang, who in turn cried out as well, before she too fell off of the bed. As the two girls, now fully awake, stood up from the floor, they turned to the window, as they heard the sound of someone chuckling. A plume of spikey silver hair was bouncing with the sound of the laughing. Violet eyes narrowed as recognition hit them, Yang's hand reaching for the nearest object she could throw at Kakashi's head.

He knew that the stuffed toad doll was flying at his head, he could dodge it easily, but for the sake of the two little girls in the room, he elected to let the toy hit his head. Without turning around, he tossed the toy back onto the bed before walking off towards the front of the house, "Breakfast is almost ready, better hurry before it's all gone," he said with a smile and a hint of tease in his voice. Both girls looked back at each other as the words sank in, both girls hurrying to get dressed and get down to the food waiting for them. After breakfast, everyone spent time getting ready, bathing and getting dressed for their trip from Patch, to Vale and Beacon Academy. Summer stayed home with Ruby, while Taiyang, Kakashi, and Yang loaded up onto the Bullhead airship and took off from their little island home.

This flight took much less time than the one from the elemental nations, Yang spent the whole flight marveling at the wonders of Vale and it's technology; Taiyang spent the time going over the events of the negotiations in Konoha. Professor Ozpin had told him of the Counsels decision to seek a political marriage between the two countries in the aim of 'creating peace' between them. But after the call with the Counsel had finished, Ozpin, in his typically cryptic way, had let Taiyang know that he was to use his judgement and make the best choice. The ambassador had sent back communications on Ozpin's private line, letting him know how the negotiations had been going, and what choices had been made. Taiyang could only hope that the Counsel wouldn't be too outraged by how the events had played out.

As their ship came in to land on the Headmaster's personal landing pad, they could see two individuals waiting for them; one was a tall, thin man, he had grey hair, dark glasses that sat down on his nose. He wore a dark green suit, and carried a cane and mug of coffee. Next to him was an almost equally tall woman with blonde hair and green eyes. She wore a business-like outfit with a cape. When their ship landed, its three passengers disembarked, Taiyang in the lead, with Kakashi and Yang following him, Kakashi holding Yang's hand to keep her from running off.

Taiyang had sent pictures of the little girl ahead of them, so Ozpin was curious of this other mysterious visitor that had accompanied them. He was a tall man, grey hair, like his own, his lower face covered by a cloth mask, while his headband was pulled down to hide his left eye. The man stood with a relaxed posture, but Ozpin could tell that the man was observing everything around him, discerning any possible threats and calculating strategies to counter them. "Mr. Xiao Long, it is good to see you again, my old friend," Ozpin opened the conversation with a smile, sparing the man who somewhat resembled a scarecrow, a sideways glance. "I am Professor Ozpin, and this is my assistant Glynda Goodwitch; and you are?" the Headmaster asked, turning to fully face the unexpected guest.

"Kakashi Hatake, shinobi of Konoha, pleasure to meet you," he responded, performing one of his signature 'eye-smiles'.

Taking a sip of his coffee while he processed this information, Ozpin knew that Glynda, his assistant, would be far more direct in the situation… well and that she greatly disliked surprises.

"And why did your village send you here, Mr. Hatake?" the tall blonde asked, gripping her tablet tightly.

"I requested to come, I had been assigned to guard little Naru since she was born. Her parents were very dear to me," the seemingly lazy shinobi responded, the last line drew attention from Ozpin, Glynda, and especially Yang.

"You knew my parents?" the little girl asked, hope filling her eyes.

"Yes, but there is little I am allowed to tell you, regrettably," He said, kneeling down to her level. "I can tell you that they loved you more than life itself, and that if they had been able to, they would have given anything to be there with you," he told the girl, his hand resting gently on top of her head, a sad smile on his face. "On your 16th birthday, you will be told about your parents, I promise," he stated, before standing back up into his lazy posture.

"Why, may I ask, can't you tell the girl about her parents?" Ozpin questioned, he knew of the girl's burden, but the Hokage would not divulge the girl's parentage to him.

"The law put in place to protect her from her parents' enemies," Kakashi responded. "If word got out that little Naru was who she is, there would be a line of assassins coming to take her life," he finished, taking note of the shock evident on Glynda's face.

"Well, little Naru," Ozpin started.

"Actually Headmaster, her name is Yang now, Yang Xiao Long," Taiyang interrupted, kneeling down next to his adopted daughter.

"… Little Yang then, will be safe," Ozpin finished, taking no offense at the interruption. Pulling on the door handle, Ozpin ushered his guests inside, with Glynda entering last and moving to stand next to the Headmaster's desk. "Well then, I am sure that you are all eager to get back home and enjoy what time you have left before the school semester starts," Ozpin said, after he had taken his seat behind his desk. "Taiyang, do you have the paperwork?" he asked, knowing that his ambassador would never forget something this important.

"Yes, sir, I have it right here," Vale's ambassador said, as he produced the documents that would secure the treaty with Konoha, and officially make little Naru Uzumaki his daughter, and rename her as Yang Xiao Long, citizen of Vale. The signing went quickly and a copy was handed by Ozpin, to Kakashi, to take back to the Hokage.

"Kakashi, was it?" Ozpin asked as the group was heading back towards the Bullhead airship that would take them back to Patch.

"Yes," the man said, turning back towards the Headmaster.

"I take it you plan to visit little Yang in the future?" came the question.

"Yes, I plan on visiting when I can," Kakashi said, glancing towards the little blonde girl.

"Feel free to drop by for coffee and a chat, whenever you're in town," Ozpin offered, extending his hand forward. Smiling, Kakashi extended his own hand, taking the Headmaster's in a firm handshake, before the two men nodded their respect to each other. They had learned much during their time together, through words, both spoken and unspoken, body language, and most importantly, through their concern over the little girl that was leaving one life behind, and starting a new life at the same time.

"What do you make of this Kakashi Hatake?" Glynda asked, checking over her Scroll again.

"He is a man who has lost a great deal, and has sworn to protect what he has left," Ozpin replied.

"So he leaves the girl he has been protecting her entire life, with people he barely knows, in a country he's never been to before?" she asked, the idea sounded absurd to her.

"If he didn't trust Taiyang and his wife, or us for that matter, with the safety of that girl, there is nothing we could do to stop him," came the blunt reply.

"Stop him from what?" the obvious question asked.

"From killing anyone and everyone that threatened her life," the Headmaster stated.

"How would he do that? My Scroll shows he brought no weapons with him," the blonde said, not believing that one man could pose such a threat to two of the strongest Huntsmen in Vale.

"That man is a weapon, a weapon that has been forged in war, sacrifice, and loss," Ozpin said in his typical cryptic manor. "We can only hope that we never give them a reason to question that trust," he finished, taking another sip of coffee while looking out of his office window at the departing aircraft.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I do not own Naruto, or RWBY; please support the official release.**

The first year that Yang spent with her new family went by in a blur, from shopping for a new outfit for the girl, to enrolling her in her new school, to seeing her make new friends, unhindered by the biases of her old home. Then there was her growth spurt; ever since Summer had 'fixed' her diet, by nearly forcing the girl to eat more healthy foods, the young girl had grown significantly, at least for a girl almost 10 years old. Sadly, Summer couldn't be a stay-at-home mother for long, their family needed the income she provided from being a Huntress. The missions she took would take her away from her family for weeks at a time. But she always returned home, with a tired smile, to her family. Well, almost always. One mission to Atlas proved just how dangerous the line of work was. Qrow, their uncle, had returned from the mission he'd been sent on with their mother; all he had been able to escape with was his life, and Summer's cloak. He was badly hurt and Taiyang had immediately taken him to the hospital, the news of his wife's death struggling to consume him.

It wasn't until they both returned that the two men explained to Yang and Ruby that their mother had died. Taiyang spent that night comforting his daughters, as they cried and mourned together. Summer Rose received a funeral befitting a Huntress of the Kingdom of Vale. Huntsmen and Huntresses from the Kingdom had come to pay their respects, and offer condolences to the family. Taiyang had taken the death particularly hard; very few knew that Summer Rose hadn't been his first wife, but was in fact, his second. His first wife had disappeared without a trace early on in their marriage; her body was never found. Over the next few years, Yang had stepped up to help take care of Ruby; as a side effect, she had become protective of her younger sister. In the end, it was Taiyang's daughters that pulled him through his depression, they needed him, and he needed them, and like they said five years ago, they don't turn their backs on family.

Despite their loss, Taiyang's duties as Ambassador were still required, meaning that once to twice a year, he would make the trip to Konoha, to discuss trade agreements, possible immigration between the countries, and special events such as the upcoming Chunin Exams in Konoha, and the Vytal Festival in Vale. Yang was 13 years old now; if she had stayed in Konoha, she would be a Genin and a possible participant in the Chunin Exams. For this trip to Konoha, Taiyang brought his daughters with him, they were on break from school for a few months, and Yang had really missed her old home. The lush forest brought back many old memories as they disembarked their aircraft, heading towards the shinobi village.

Yang's outfit had changed during the time she spent away; gone was the loose orange shirt and tattered black pants. Now she wore a yellow shirt, with a black flaming heart she had drawn, under a tan, short sleeved jacket with puffy shoulders, with her orange scarf around her neck and black, fingerless gloves on her hands. On her wrists she wore yellow, metal bracers, the first iteration of the weapons she was designing for herself at Signal Academy. She also wore black shorts, showing her toned legs, with a brown belt, the hitai-ate she had been given by Iruka as her belt buckle; off of her right hip, and circling behind her was a white half-skirt. On her feet she wore tall, brown boots with a low heel over orange, knee high socks. Her hair had grown too, now reaching just below her shoulder blades. The girl had gained a significant amount of self-confidence over the years, having made two other trips with her father to the hidden village where, while her father was in meetings with the Hokage, she attended 'Kunoichi Training' with other girls that would have been in her class, girls like Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, who were currently her best female friends. The class was taught by Kurenai Yuhi and Anko Mitarashi; it covered the art of seduction, and using flirtation to get an advantage in a fight, especially against a male opponent, as well as posture, how to listen and pick up subtle hints, even making and serving tea. While the girls were too young for full on seduction, practicing flirtation on their fellow Genin was certainly fun, especially for Yang who, legally being a foreigner, drew a fair amount of attention from the males who didn't know/remember who she used to be; only the faint whisker marks on her cheeks giving any indication that she was the Kyubi Jinchuriki that had left the village five years earlier.

Thinking back on the five years away, Yang had had several visits from both Jiraiya and Kakashi, who would spend their time training her in combat arts; while Yang was in school, Kakashi would play board and strategy games with Ruby. These training sessions were usually followed by taking the girl out to get food, both men pleasantly surprised to see that her manners had improved greatly. Jiraiya in particular, and a little perversely, was pleased to see how she was developing as a young woman; she may be his goddaughter, but he could still appreciate the sight of a beautiful girl. All three of them had learned a lot during those training sessions. They learned that she was a natural brawler; she preferred to get up close, meeting her opponents head-on. They also learned that the Kyubi, which she had been told about on her 10th birthday, granted her above average strength and stamina, on top of the physical training she did. When she found out about the Kyubi, Taiyang, Ruby, Kakashi, and Jiraiya had assured her that they loved her no matter what, and some overly angry chakra monster wasn't going to change that.

As she walked down the street next to her father, with Kakashi and some other shinobi she didn't know as escorts, she soaked in the sights, the buildings she used to know, the people who had forgotten her, no longer glaring hate at her as she walked by. Instead of a scared, cowering child, she was now a tall, confident young woman; she was the daughter of the Ambassador from Vale; and she could kick the ass of anyone who tried anything against her, or her sister Ruby. Speaking of Ruby Rose, she too had grown, the natural red highlights in her hair becoming more vibrant and noticeable, the wonder in her eyes sparkled as she took in all the wondrous colors of the village she barely remembered visiting five years prior. Ruby was still two years away from starting at Signal, so she was unarmed, with Taiyang requesting a guard for her, in case someone decided to incite a war between the two allies, but who would do that? Ruby had complained about the need for her to have a guard, when Yang could walk around without one, to which their father responded, "Yang put that one kid through a wall for making a lewd comment; don't forget, she's had several years of combat training already; besides, Kakashi is going to be keeping an eye on her, to help keep her out of trouble," he finished, turning to look at his blonde daughter, knowing first hand that she liked to cause mischief when she could get away with it.

"Dad!" Yang exclaimed, huffing at the accusation, earning a chuckle from the grey haired shinobi beside her. Hearing his laugh she turned her glare to Kakashi, the fierce gaze having no effect on the older shinobi. As the Hokage tower grew closer, a small smile formed on the violet eyed girl's face, she would get to see the man she'd considered like a grandfather again.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been expecting them ever since he'd received the message that the Ambassador and his daughters would be visiting to witness the Chunin Exams; he'd heard the news about Summer Rose's passing and had sent his condolences to the grieving family. What he hadn't expected was how calm and quiet Nar… no Yang, was being; she was sitting in his office, with her back straight, she wasn't sleeping, or complaining; she truly did look like the daughter of an important political figure… well at least her attitude did, her style of dress, while not out of place in a shinobi village, was certainly not what you would expect from an ambassador's daughter. It was forgivable, however, knowing her past, and learning that she was attending combat school to become a Huntress, to protect people who couldn't protect themselves. The old Hokage had to wonder, just how much had the girl changed from the ball of energy she used to be. He would get his answer soon.

After the meeting had ended, and the Hokage's advisors left the room, Yang sprang up from her seat, and leapt over the Hokage's desk. Hiruzen's guards almost moved to intercept the girl, perceiving her actions as an assassination attempt, but a hand motion from Kakashi had stopped them. They were surprised to see the formerly quiet girl hugging their village leader, rambling on and on about how she'd missed him, and the things she'd seen and done; the look on the elder Sarutobi's face was one akin to an old man listening to the excited tales of his beloved granddaughter. The Hokage sent his guards away with a small motion of his hand, as the girl continued to talk about everything from school, to training with Jiraiya, to the new clothes she'd gotten. He had to chuckle when she finally seemed to run out of stories to tell him, he had missed seeing that bright smile that could light up the darkest corners of a room.

"So you're here to watch the Chunin Exams are you?" Hiruzen asked as the group left his office, he was personally leading them to where they would be staying.

"Oh yea! It's gonna be awesome!" Yang proclaimed, thrusting her fist into the air with a bright smile on her face. She'd heard about the Exams from Kakashi during his visits, she loved watching a good fight between two strong opponents.

After the Hokage had left them at the Ambassadorial residence, the trio unpacked for their stay in Konoha. The residence was pretty big for a temporary stay. It had enough bedrooms and bathrooms for a small clan. The place also had a maid service, employed by the Hokage, to keep everything clean and in order. "Hey Dad, I'm gonna take Ruby out and go get some ramen at Ichiraku," Yang told her father, while she and her sister were heading out of the door.

"Ok dear, don't be out too late," came the reply, he had paperwork to look over, and he could use the peace and quiet.

The two girls walked down the street, Yang aware of the eyes that followed them as they traveled towards the food stand she made a point to visit every time she was in Konoha. Walking up to the stand, the blonde slipped past the curtain that covered patrons from the sun outside, taking a seat on one of the stools. Ruby sat on the stool next to her, excited to try this 'ramen' out that her sister had told her so much about. The sisters were greeted by Ayame, the daughter of the owner of the stand, Teuchi. The older, brunette girl recognized Yang after a brief moment, smiling to the girl before looking over at the shorter girl next to her. "Hey Yang, welcome back, who's this your brought with you?" Ayame asked, smiling warmly at Ruby.

"This is my sister, Ruby," Yang answered matter-of-factly, while putting her arm around her sister's shoulder. "Ruby, this is Ayame. She and her father make the best ramen in the world," the blonde proclaimed, earning warm smiles from the father and daughter.

"Hey beautiful, is this seat taken?" a familiar voice rang out from behind the sisters sitting at the counter. The voice had changed a bit over the years, grown a little deeper, and gained more confidence. Despite these changes, Yang still easily recognized the voice of Kiba Inuzuka, as the boy slid onto the seat next to her, trying his best to flirt with the blonde girl he didn't yet recognize.

With a flirtatious grin, she responded, "You couldn't handle me pup," earning a few laughs from the others that had walked to the stand with the boy.

"Idiot! That's the Vale Ambassador's daughter," a pink haired girl admonished the feral boy.

"Well maybe she's here to try out some of the local 'flavor'," he responded suggestively, reaching his hand over to Yang's exposed thigh. His hand never touched her skin as she grabbed it before he could make contact.

"Heh, if you wanted to hold hands, all you had to do was ask baby," Kiba said, chuckling to himself before his hand erupted in pain as the blonde girl squeezed down on the offending hand.

Turning to lock her gaze with his, Yang replied, "If you don't want to lose your 'girlfriend' here, you better keep her to yourself," emphasizing her point with another squeeze that brought the over-confidant boy to his knees.

"Yang! Don't break his hand, you might piss someone off," Ruby chided her older sister, the others at the booth finally noticing the smaller girl next to the blonde.

"Heh, don't worry Ruby, this boy couldn't even take on Zwei," the violet eyed girl said dismissively.

"Zwei… that name sounds familiar…" Kiba said, cradling his hand, inspecting it for damage.

"Oh so you remember the name of the dog you gave her five years ago, but you don't remember her name?" Ino said incredulously.

"Five years ago?" the boy looked back at the two girls in the group; they had seen Yang several times in the last five years, the three of them were good friends, so of course they recognized her. Yang couldn't help but smile as she could almost see the gears turning in the 'dog boy's' head.

"Troublesome," remarked Shikamaru, the lazy shinobi.

Wait, violet eyes, small whisker-like marks on her cheeks, could it be? Yang smirked as she saw the realization fill Kiba's eyes. "Naru… Naru Uzumaki? Is it you?" he asked.

"Yes, and no," came the reply. "It is me, but my name is Yang Xiao Long now," she finished, with a proud, confidant smile on her face. "And this," she added, while reaching over, wrapping her arm around the shoulders of the younger girl next to her, "is my adorable sister Ruby Rose."

Ruby struggled against her sister's embrace, blushing in embarrassment, suddenly being the center of attention in a group of people she hadn't met before. Everyone in the group greeted the silver eyed girl with a warm smile, friendly greeting and a wave, Ino and Sakura loving the idea of meeting another girl to hang out with. The group hung out and chatted for a while, eating ramen, and then walking through the village, eventually ending up at the training grounds. Seeing the familiar place, Yang smiled, suddenly feeling a little restless, a challenging smirk drawing itself on her face.

"So, who's up for a quick sparring match?" the blonde offered, turning to her group of friends.

"What do I get when I win?" Kiba asked, meeting the challenge with his own smirk.

"IF you win… I'll give you something… special," she answered, mischief dancing in her violet eyes.

With his determination set, Kiba walked away from the group, getting set into his fighting stance, "Akamaru, go sit over with the girls," he told his companion, not believing he would need the help in this fight. With that command, the nin-dog walked over to Ruby, Ino, and Sakura, nudging the black and red clad girl's hand with his snout, earning a soft giggle and pets from the eleven year old girl.

With a flippant wave of her hand, Yang walked over, opposite of Kiba, stretching to warm herself up, although if she had to be perfectly honest, some of the stretches were less to prepare herself, and more to distract her opponent; as she entered her own fighting stance, she noticed that her little display had had the desired effect, his pupils were dilated, his breathing was noticeably faster, and he wasn't meeting her gaze. Ino and Sakura shared a brief glance as they smirked, they knew what Yang was doing, she was putting their kunoichi training to use. "Ok, when this kunai hits the ground, the match starts," declared Ino, tossing her weapon into the air, all eyes on the two combatants.

With a thud, signaling the knife impacting the ground, Kiba set off on his charge intending to end the match quickly, asserting his dominance as all 'alpha males' do. What he wasn't expecting was for his punch to be blocked, her arm not even wavering against his strength. With a determined grin, her fist came crashing down on the side of his stunned face, sending the boy skidding across the ground. "I thought you said you were going to win this fight dog breath; at this rate you'll never get your prize," Yang taunted while resting her hand on her hip with a playful smile on her face.

With a growl Kiba stood back up, he was furious at being made fun of; he shouldn't have taken her so lightly, but now she was attacking his pride. With a clap of his hands, and focusing his chakra, his features grew more animalistic; his nails sharpening into claws, his teeth growing sharper, and his hair becoming more wild. He had entered his beast fighting mode, and he was going to show her who was 'top dog' around here. With that thought in mind, he launched himself at the girl, faster than before, and again, she blocked his attack, seemingly with little effort, but this time he was prepared for her punch, ducking under the swing and retaliating with his own uppercut. Smiling at finally being taken seriously, Yang tilted her head back, avoiding the blow aimed at her chin, and bringing her knee up into Kiba's gut, forcing the boy to back off briefly.

The fight went on for several minutes, neither combatant seemingly having an advantage. Kiba couldn't seem to get through Yang's defenses, but still seemed fast enough to dodge or block her own attacks. But as the fight dragged on, Kiba noticed that his chakra reserves were dropping, but Yang seemed to be just fine, actually she seemed to be getting a little bored with the fight. Kiba decided it was time to secure his victory, and end the fight here and now. Backing off a short distance, he crouched down low, channeling his chakra. As he leapt at his opponent, like he had so many times already, he forced his body into a spin, using his chakra to accelerate his spin until he was a cyclonic blur driving towards the blonde girl. As he got closer to impacting with his attack, Yang raised her arms to guard herself. His spinning claws met her metal bracers and the power behind his attack drove her skidding backwards, but her feet never left the ground, and her body stayed upright. All eyes around them were surprised to see someone just block Kiba's attack like that. Shikamaru, looking closely, noticed a yellow glow around Yang's arms, it almost looked like fire. The group watched as the girl drew her right arm back, holding Kiba's attack off with only one arm. Suddenly that golden fire spread up her right arm as it shot forward, colliding with the focal point of Kiba's attack. Ino and Sakura noticed Yang's hair starting to float slightly as it too glowed with a golden fire. With a loud yell Yang finished the swing of her punch, sending her opponent backwards, crashing into the ground as his attack was shut down and his body skidded along the dirt of the training area.

Hearing the crash, Akamaru looked up at his partner, barking once before succumbing again to the delightful scratching Ruby was giving to his ears.

"Well, that was fun," Yang said as her hair returned to normal, a light sweat on her forehead as she walked over to where Kiba laid. Helping the disoriented boy up, and walking him over to the seating area with the rest of the group, she heard him mutter something about 'unfair' and 'lucky shot,' laughing softly to herself. "Maybe next time Kibble, maybe next time," she whispered to the boy.

After the sparing match the group sat around talking about the last few years, what had changed, what had stayed the same, what life was like on Patch. When Kiba finally woke up, he saw Yang, Ino, and Sakura all chatting about 'girl stuff.' With a groan he sat up and leaned against the tree log that Shikamaru was sitting on. "How long was I out?" he asked his friend.

"Only about 2 minutes," the lazy boy responded. "You lost by the way," he added with a smirk, noting the aggravated look on the wild boy's face. Grumbling to himself about traitorous friends, Kiba looked and saw the girls chatting about some stupid girly stuff. He saw Ino laugh and, in that way that girls do, put her hand on Yang's thigh, the same thigh Kiba had nearly lost his hand over earlier.

Violet eyes flashed over to his for the briefest moment, not even interrupting their conversation. As they returned to their sky blue counterparts, a subtle plan was hatched and being discussed between the two blonde girls. They were going to have fun at Kiba's expense. Through body language, eye motions, and subtle hints, Yang passed her idea to Ino, who readily agreed. Slowly Ino shifted her hand up Yang's thigh, starting at her knee, and moving up towards her hip. Once she reached the top, her hand gently drifted back down, neither girl showing any acknowledgement of their own actions. As the conversation progressed, Yang laughed at something Ino said, placing her hand gently on top of Ino's, squeezing gently. The girls were already sitting close together, and each shift in movement seemed to bring the two closer together, with Sakura watching the boys' reactions. Soon both blondes were breathing deeply, violet eyes staring into blue eyes, with a passion that was barely perceptible to the onlookers. Slowly the two leaned closer together, their eyes drifting shut as their heads rotated slightly, their lips meeting for a tender kiss as their arms wrapped around the other's form.

Shikamaru had guessed the two girls' intensions and chose to shift his attention skyward, to his favorite activity, watching clouds, while glancing over at the sight before them out of the corner of his eye. Kiba on the other hand, had a swarm of thoughts racing through his head, watching the two beautiful girls kiss and caused a drastic shift in his blood flow as perverted thoughts ran rampant in his mind. Suddenly, those thoughts caused a surge of blood to shoot out of his nose, sending his head to crash backwards into the log he was leaning against, once again knocking the boy unconscious. Chouji, who had otherwise been quietly munching on his chips the whole time, had paused in his snacking, holding a chip just outside of his open mouth as his eyes took in the sight, his brain struggling to wrap itself around the thought of the two girls kissing.

A sudden laugh, at the expense of Kiba, wrenched the larger boy from his stupor, as the blondes rejoiced at the success of their plan; both of the still conscious boys needing to adjust their pants from the ideas floating around in their heads. Unknown to them, the girls had practiced this exact sort of 'technique' during their kunoichi training. It was explained to them as a way to distract opponents by filling their heads with perverse thoughts, usually containing the idea of two beautiful girls having sex. Needless to say, their plan had worked perfectly.

"Troublesome women," Shikamaru muttered as he tried to discreetly wipe away his own nosebleed without being noticed. He had seen Sakura rejoicing along with Ino and Yang on their victory over the teenage male hormones.

Shortly after, the group went their separate ways, saying their goodbyes, and Yang and Ruby wishing them good luck in the Exams that would be starting the next day. The two sisters were talking and laughing about the day's events as they walked back to the Ambassador's Residence. Both girls gave their father a kiss on the cheek before they headed up stairs to bathe and head to bed, tomorrow would be packed with plenty of excitement that they needed the energy for.

The next morning came swiftly, the warm sun peeking into the window, rousing the sleeping girl with long blonde hair. Opening her eyes, seeing the trees, a smile played across her face, lighting up her violet eyes. Quickly, she got ready, brushing her hair that she had come to love, applying a small amount of makeup, mostly to downplay her whisker birthmarks, and getting dressed in her favorite outfit. With everything in place, she headed down to grab some breakfast, seeing her father and sister already munching on the eggs, fruit, and bacon prepared for them by the staff. With their meal eaten, the family of three headed out towards the Hokage Tower, where they, along with the Professors from Beacon, would be able to watch at least the first part of the Chunin Exam. Due to the nature of the first test, the observing group was forced to watch on monitors inside the Hokage's office, instead of being in the room with the candidates. On the large screens was a room with many tables and chairs, it looked like a large classroom. Slowly the candidates entered the room, taking seats that seemed to be almost random, but Yang noticed that none of her friends were sitting next to their teammates, so the seats had to be assigned. Once all the Genin were seated, a smaller group of shinobi, Chunin if she had to guess, filed in around the walls of the room, they all held clipboards and pens. A big man appeared at the head of the classroom, saying something about the test, and how if they were caught cheating so many times their team would fail the test.

When the test started, Yang thought over the rules of the test, she had heard from the proctor; normally, if someone was caught cheating, even once, on a test, they were immediately failed and asked to leave, the fact that they were given chances meant there was a deeper meaning to the test. Watching the students read over the test, most of them looking lost with a few answering the questions right away, the purpose soon became clear to the violet eyed girl. The test was about gathering information; she guessed that the test was too difficult for the average Genin to answer, alone, so they had to gather the information from someone else. The last question did bother her though, why was the question withheld until the end of the test? And why did it have its own rules? After the majority of the time limit had passed, the final question was finally being brought up by the proctor. The rules of the question were perplexing at first, answer the question wrong, and you fail the entire test, losing the ability for the team to ever retake the test, but opt out of the last question, and your team can try again next year. It took a moment for Yang to realize the nature of the final question; it wasn't a knowledge question, it was a question of resolve; could you face an unknown, something that could end your career, or would you elect to avoid it all together? Strangely, this was a similar type of question asked in the Huntsmen Academies, although the students didn't have to figure out the purpose on their own.

Hiruzen smiled as he watched Yang analyze and figure out the test she would have been taking, if her life had played out differently. To his side, Professor Ozpin seemed to have figured out the test as well, his confidant smile showing his understanding, his attractive assistant also smiling at the revelation. Many students had opted to leave the test, choosing to spare their teammates from failure, instead of taking the risk to advance. Once the failures had filed out of the room, the true purpose of the test was revealed to those that had stayed. Before congratulations could be given out, the window exploded inwards as something flew inside the room. The object revealed itself to be a woman with spikey purple hair, a mesh shirt and long tan coat, with a giant banner telling the remaining candidates to head to someplace called "The Forest of Death," the name drawing attention to the old Hokage.

Given that the next test wouldn't start for two hours, the group left the office for lunch, Hiruzen insisting treating his guests. During the meal, the Headmaster and Hokage spoke about seemingly random topics ranging from natural resources, to training academies, to local politics with the surrounding nations. After the meal, they returned to the office, the display screens showing candidate team status instead of live video feed, with the explanation of the duration of the test, and inability to capture live footage of the entire event. This portion of the test would last for five days, with the teams needing to collect a scroll complimentary to the one they were given. The scrolls were given to the other teams, with no knowledge of which team had which scroll. The teams had to take their scrolls to the tower in the middle of the forest and open a door that led inside where the next phase of the test would commence.

The next five days involved the assembled leaders talking politics while the two girls, and Kakashi, went to a training ground, the older shinobi happily training the two girls in chakra control exercises and basic combat. By the end of the five days, both Yang and Ruby had learned the tree climbing and water walking exercises, and improved their reaction times and situational awareness. The training sessions were followed with trips out for food, which Kakashi insisted on paying for, saying that having the two girls as company was more than enough for him. The two girls had grown so much since little Naru left Konoha five years ago, Yang herself growing into a beautiful young woman, and Ruby showing true potential in the areas of marksmanship and tactical combat. The grey haired shinobi learned that Yang had unlocked her Aura during her first year at Signal, and had learned to use it in a way similar to chakra. As a result, her strength and stamina were far beyond others her age. He had been watching the sparring match between her and Kiba the other day, and had to say he was proud of her ability to react and defeat her opponent. He'd also been aware of her attending the kunoichi classes Kurenai and Anko instructed, and after witnessing her skill with it first hand, she would be the bane of perverts everywhere, possibly one day rivaling Tsunade. He shuddered at the thought of the two blonde bombshells meeting.

At the end of the five days, the group all gathered into the Hokage's office once again, the final teams were entering the tower and getting ready for the next part of the exam. The whole group loaded onto Ozpin's Bullhead Airship, that would ferry them to the tower faster than any of them could travel on their own. After reaching the tower, the group traveled down to a large room that looked like a combat arena. The remaining candidates gathered on the balcony across the arena from where the diplomats were. Yang waved as she made eye contact with her friends, both Ino and Sakura looked tired and a bit worse for wear, but then spending five days surviving in the forest would have that effect. Looking over the other contestants, she had to admit that there were a number of attractive boys and girls. One was a blonde, like her, with green eyes, her hair up in a weird quad-ponytail design, and she had what looked like a giant fan, closed and strapped to her back. Another was a boy, he looked kind of like that Hinata girl she'd been introduced to a while ago; he had the same pale eyes and long black hair. Then there was **that guy**, his hair was in some, god-awful bowl cut, his eyebrows almost looked alive, and he was dressed in green spandex. Yang shuddered at his outburst of 'the Flames of Youth.' She felt compelled to cover Ruby's eyes, lest she have nightmares of "Konoha's Green Beast."

The proctor for the second exam, Anko, said that there were too many participants that had passed, so they would be doing a preliminary tournament to whittle down the number to eight. The fights began, the two combatants being selected at random. Most of the fights were entertaining to watch, but not very memorable. There was the fight where that Rock Lee kid, the one in green spandex, fought Gaara, that fight had been an eye-opener. 'Bushie Brows' as she'd nick-named him, put up a good fight, but Gaara's sand abilities seemed to be too much, leaving the kid beaten and broken. Shikamaru's fight was interesting, he used his shadows to ensnare his opponent, some girl who used bells to attack with, once he had control he forced her to smack her head against the wall, knocking her unconscious. The girl with the large fan, Temari, was up against Tenten, a girl who specialized in weapons. Yang noticed Ruby showed particular fascination in Tenten and her weapons that she made appear from nothing but paper and ink. Ultimately Tenten, and her arsenal, was no match for the wind abilities of Temari. Disappointingly, Ino and Sakura suffered a double knockout, both being eliminated from the tournament. With the preliminaries completed, the Hokage stepped up to announce that the Chunin Exam Finals would be held in one month, giving the contestants time to rest, train, and create new strategies. With that, they each grabbed a numbered ball from a box, to choose the fighting order. After all was said and done, the combatants left the arena through a door that would lead them back to the village quickly and safely, with the diplomats heading back to the landing area for the airship.

While Taiyang and his daughters were spending the month in Konoha, Ozpin and Glynda had to return to Beacon, they had work that needed to be done, but they promised to be back in time for the finals. Yang and Ruby decided to go visit their friends, congratulating those that passed, and visiting the ones in worse conditions. Many of their friends were resting in the hospital, some with minor wounds, others more serious, all of them would survive, thankfully. Walking into Kiba's room, Yang found the boy awake, holding his companion, Akamaru who had been injured during his fight. Ruby went over quickly, asking if the cute puppy was ok, she was reassured by Kiba's older sister, an experienced veterinarian, that Akamaru would be fine with some rest. Kiba himself would need some rest to recover from his fight. Yang looked down at the battered boy, a soft smile on her face as she leaned down and gave him a soft kiss on his forehead, earning a light blush from him. She left the room to visit her other friends, finding Sakura and Ino in the same room. After talking to the girls, who both had minor injuries, she gave each a reassuring hug, before continuing on. Shikamaru was lying around outside the hospital, while Chouji was resting inside. Ruby had snuck in some snacks for the friendly guy, earning tearful thanks. After the long day, the sisters returned to the Ambassador's Residence to eat and rest. Professor Ozpin had brought a tutor with him, for Yang and Ruby to help them keep up on their studies.

Their studies consisted of general education: math, reading and writing, history, and politics; being the daughters of the Ambassador meant that they had to be well educated. To make matters worse, the Hokage had assigned Kakashi to assist the tutor, knowing that the girls would try to ditch their instructor. After a week of classes, their tutor decided to give the girls a day off, a reward for their hard work. Yang and Ruby decided to meet up with Ino and Sakura, and have a "girls' day". For this day they chose to head to the hot-springs for a nice relaxing time. Luckily, as the Ambassador's daughters, Yang and Ruby were able to secure a private bath for the four of them, depositing their clothes into the lockers and walking into the bath area with towels wrapped around them. As the girls sank into the steaming water, the heat seeped into their muscles, helping to relax away the stress they'd felt for the last few weeks. The girls spent the time talking about girl things, like clothes, skin and hair care products, diets, and cute boys. That last subject was a source of torment for Ruby as the three older girls teased her about the various boys who had paid her special attentions over the last couple weeks. Ruby was living up to her name as her blush turned her face a bright red.

"What about Yang and Ino kissing last week? What was that about?" Ruby said, trying to turn the tables on her sister and her friends.

"Oh that? That was a trick we learned one of my last times here," Yang started, nonchalantly.

"A trick?" the younger girl asked.

"Yeah, it's supposed to distract and disarm opponents, especially the perverted ones," Ino continued for her fellow blonde.

"It's one of the things almost all female shinobi learn," Sakura finished.

"Why would they teach you something like that?" Ruby wondered, finding the idea to be strange.

"Because kunoichi sometimes get sent out on… different missions, than male shinobi," Ino said, looking a little uncomfortable at the thought of being sent on one of those types of missions.

A rustling of nearby bushes, accompanied by giggling, interrupted the conversation, the sound of a pen on paper giving Yang a good idea what the source of the sounds was. Yang may love her godfather, but she still despised his overly perverted ways. As such, she felt the older man needed another lesson not to peek on the female baths. Glancing over to Ino and Sakura, she confirmed the other girls had heard the noises too. With their silent agreement, she set her plan into action, playfully splashing water at Ino while giggling like a school girl. The other two picked up on her lead and followed suit, soon the three were playfully roughhousing in the water, each contact of skin lasting longer and longer, until Ino tackled Yang, resulting in their young bodies pressed together, their lips again meeting in a kiss. This kiss, different from before, was longer, more passionate, with both girls really seeming to get into it. Not to be left out, Sakura pulled up next to her friends, stealing away Yang's lips as the blondes came up for air. The giggling and scratching sounds were louder now, and the three girls pinpointed the sounds as they noticed a small notch missing in the wooden fence surrounding the bath. Just before things could go any further, Yang, slightly stunned from the intensity of the two kisses sat back for a moment. 'Did Sakura give me a French kiss?' she wondered, touching her finger tips softly to her lips. Ino and Sakura however sprang the trap, throwing a kunai at the giggling bush. As the dagger impacted, a figure clad in red with long grey hair shot up into the air, clutching his butt in pain. As the figure reached max height, the two girls yelled out, "PERVERT!" drawing attention to the man.

Looking back at their still dazed friend, Sakura looked pleased with herself, while Ino looked over at her, there seemed to be a challenge between them that involved kissing Yang. Ruby watched the whole incident like they were all crazy, sure she was… intrigued by the kissing, she might have to try it someday, but now they were hauling Yang, who was starting to come to her senses back to the locker room so they could all dry off and get dressed. Ruby, always being the quick one, was the first out of the locker room, waiting outside, fully dressed, for her sister and friends to come out. What she missed out on were the kisses the older three girls shared before they finished dressing and joined her outside.

Walking around the hot springs, the four girls found a crowd of women beating a pile of red and grey into the ground. As the last of the women left, the girls walked up to the legendary pervert, Yang prodding him with her boot. "Hey, Pervy Sage, get up," the puddle of clothes started to shake lightly.

"I can't believe you would betray me like that Yang," came Jiraiya's voice, almost sounding like the man was crying.

"Oh can it you old pervert," Yang responded, not giving in to his ploy. "You deserved it and you know it."

Surprising three of the four girls, the old man jumped up, with a wide grin on his face, seemingly unhurt despite the beating he'd just received; Yang just looked annoyed at him. "Sooo… Jiraiya, my kind and loving Godfather," Yang started out, her voice almost sickeningly sweet, the tone setting off alarms in his head. "You weren't, by chance, at this hot springs here, to spy on your darling Goddaughter, her sister, and her friends… were you?" she questioned, her smile dropping away only to be replaced with a look that promised much pain, that look mirrored by the blonde and pink-haired kunoichi on either side.

"Oh, uh… no… I was just uh… doing research, yeah, research for my next book," he stuttered out, praying to whatever Gods that would listen that he not end up dead.

"I've read your books you Pervy Sage," Yang stated, drawing a horrified look from the older man; if she knew that she had, in fact, been the inspiration for one of his characters, there is no way he would walk out of this alive. Yang leaned down next to the grey haired man's head and whispered, "Oh Saki-chan, please be quiet, my parents might hear us," before backing up, smirking, as all color flushed from Jiraiya's face. The violet eyed girl, seeing her victory, turned and walked back to her friends and sister, waving her hand over her shoulder while calling back, "I'll be sure to have the Hokage contact Tsunade and let her know about book number 3." She grinned when she heard the loud gasp of horror from her Godfather.

"Hey, now, there's no need to go telling people about such things," he pleaded, running to catch up to the retreating group of girls.

"What's in it for us?" Ino asked, Sakura and her knowing full well what Yang and Jiraiya were talking about.

"I'll give you guys special training," he offered, hoping to get out of this without another near death experience.

"Training huh? What kind of 'training' are you suggesting Jiraiya-sama?" Sakura responded this time, the cute, innocent tone of her voice causing the older man to pause before a trickle of blood started from his nose.

Snapping his head from side to side to clear the bad thoughts… at least for now, he answered the question, "I can teach you how to unlock and use your aura," hopefully placating at least two of the four girls.

"You can help me unlock my aura?" Ruby asked, hopeful at getting a jump start on her career as a huntress.

"Oh yeah, through my travels I've learned much about aura, and how it interacts with chakra. I also have some special information for you Yang," Jiraiya responded, all pretense of fear seemingly gone. They took off on the short walk from the hot springs to the training grounds "Before we continue down this line of discussion though," he started, turning to face Yang. "How much do they know?" he asked, not wanting to divulge information that was her right to tell.

"They know all about the Kyubi being sealed inside me," the violet eyed girl responded, Jiraiya noted that the other three girls showed no reaction to the declaration.

"Ok then, well it seems that the seal used to bind the Kyubi, is also, slowly, using your chakra to expand your aura reserves," he stated already formulating a plan for how to train the girls in the area he promised. Soon they had arrived at their destination, far enough away from the populated areas of the village so that they would not be disturbed. "First things first, before we start training, we need to unlock your auras," he said, turning his head to look at Ino, Sakura, and Ruby each in turn.

"How do we do that? It took me a year to unlock it on my own," Yang questioned.

"By concentrating your aura, and passing it into another's head you can unlock their aura," the Toad Sage answered, his hand resting on his chin in thought.

"Oh is that all?" Yang said with a confident grin on her face, moving over to Ino first, focusing her aura to pass on and unlock her fellow blonde's. Seeing the glow fade from her own hand, and a similar glow sweep over Ino's body, Yang turned to Jiraiya to make sure she'd done it right. Seeing the nod, she continued on to Sakura and did it again, finally moving over to Ruby, smiling into her sister's eyes before helping her to unlock her aura as well. Seeing the smile on her sister's face as that first step was finally accomplished, it was time to start that training Jiraiya had promised them.

"Now that that's done, aura has many uses, but unlike chakra, aura is mostly used for defense," he began in a sage-like way. "Like chakra, aura can be focused into your hands and feet, adding strength to your punches and kicks," he continued waving his hand to Yang to demonstrate. With the queue given, Yang channeled her aura into her fist, a golden, flame-like glow covering her arm, which she used to punch the ground creating a small crater upon impact. The result impressed the three other girls. "The biggest benefit of aura and its manipulation is to heal damage you take during battle," not really having a safe way to demonstrate this, he continued on with his explanation. "Now, so far as I've seen, each person has their own semblance," taking note of the questioning looks he was getting, he expanded further, "a person's semblance is a unique ability or trait that their aura grants them, I heard a story of one girl in Mistral who can control metal with her semblance. And that Glynda woman from Beacon can use a high level of telepathy to control the objects around her," he finished.

The training took the rest of the day, the first part consisted mostly of meditating to help the girls learn to find, tap into and control their aura. The second stage focused on channeling aura to specific body parts, such as their hands, it was during this part that he noticed Sakura seemed to have a finer level of control than the others. As the girls were channeling their auras, he took note of the colors of each; Yang's was golden, Ino's was blue, Sakura's was green, and Ruby's was red. The color didn't necessarily tie into what their semblance was, but it was still interesting to note. With the sun setting behind them, Jiraiya decided to call it for the day, they could continue the training the next day, he still had to see the Hokage to give him the report he was supposed to deliver hours ago.

Their training continued on for another two weeks, after their schooling, Yang and Ruby would meet Jiraiya, Ino and Sakura to continue their aura training, with Jiraiya helping Ruby to unlock and channel her chakra as well. After the two weeks, Jiraiya had to leave again heading off to continue his spy duties, collecting information on Konoha's enemies, and keeping tabs on both of his former partners, Tsunade and Orochimaru. Even after he left, the girls still met up to continue practicing what he taught them. The time remaining before the finals flew by, between the training and the schooling, Ino and Sakura were getting to know Ruby quite well, quickly befriending Yang's younger sister. Sadly, their time together was growing short, after the Chunin Exam finals, Yang and Ruby would be returning to Patch for a while, going back to school while Ino and Sakura went back to their teams and doing missions.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I don't normally answer questions, but I guess I should to help clarify a few things.**

** pointed out about Yang going to meet Ozpin. Since we have seen no other form of political leadership outside of the Academy Headmasters, I have chosen to put Ozpin in that position. Yang isn't applying for Beacon at 8 years old, merely being registered as a citizen of Vale. As to Ozpin refering to Taiyang as "Mr. Xiao Long" that is the formal way to greet another person, especially one who holds a political position, and infront of people you do not know.**

**Zwei was a nin-dog, yes. Some of them were blood thirsty, yes. But Akamaru was cute; it is just a way I chose to explain Zwei's... "abilities" in volume 2 of RWBY.**

**I am explaining Yang's confident, flirty nature as a product of the shinobi world she was born into. I didn't want the story to focus entirely on the Naruto universe, but I didn't want to cut it out completely.**

**Jiraiya is a pervert, but in the Naruto Universe, it could be understood that, once graduating from the ninja academy, you are an adult.**

**Origionally, I was going to make the entire Chunin Exams into one chapter, but it was running too long for what I wanted, so I elected to cut it into two chapters.**

**I do not know if I will make an official pairing or not; if I do, I have a few characters in mind, but I will see when I get to that point in the story. There will be attractions to other characters, but so far, I consider it more of appreciating beauty, and less about romantic hetero/homosexual relationships.**

**As for the third member of Team 7, and several other Naruto-centric story elements, I may chose to leave them to the reader's imagination, because I want to focus more on Yang, and less about tertiary characters.**

**I do not own Naruto, or RWBY; please support the official release.**

Finally, it was the day of the Chunin Exam Finals Tournament; Yang was excited to see the combatants fight it out for the privilege of promoting. The blonde girl was almost bouncing as she bathed, got dressed, and ate her breakfast, her sister Ruby sharing in her excitement. The training they'd been doing had really sparked Ruby's interest in fighting styles and seeing who was not only stronger, but more cunning in their fights.

Once again, the Hokage was joined by Professors Ozpin and Glynda from Beacon, and a selection of huntsmen and huntresses to serve as body guards. Also in attendance was the Kazekage, the leader of Suna, the desert village. He was here to bear witness and show support of his three children who were participating in the exams. Yang and Ruby were with their father, in the secondary VIP box; the Hokage, Kazekage, Ozpin and Glynda were in the primary VIP box next to them. The huntsmen guards were split between the two areas, with Jiraiya also providing guard services to the Ambassador's family.

The fights were all exciting to watch, Neji Hyuuga won his match against some no-name guy from Kumo. The big fight that everyone was expecting, Gaara vs Sasuke Uchiha was currently on hold due to Sasuke having not shown up yet. Normally failing to show up on time would disqualify a contestant, but at the behest of the Kazekage, they chose to wait for the last Uchiha. Kankuro, Gaara's older brother, had forfeited his match with Shino Aburame before it even started, lame; ok, so almost all of the fights were exciting. Shikamaru forfeited his fight against Temari after he had secured the win, which was odd; he had claimed it was because he ran out of chakra, but Yang suspected that he either was too lazy to finish the fight, or had a bit of a crush on his opponent; she was betting on the latter. As the last fight came to conclusion, the crowd was beginning to grow restless; they wanted to see the last Uchiha's fight.

Fifteen minutes passed after the end of the last match, and just as the proctor was about to call Sasuke's disqualification, a swirl of leaves appeared in the middle of the arena. As the leaves fell to the ground, they revealed none other than Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake. The pair turned to the proctor, who was in the middle of his announcement, "We're not late are we?" Kakashi asked, causing everyone in the stadium to face-palm. Of course they were late, they were supposed to be the second match, and the first round was completed already, except for his fight.

At the reasoning of the Kazekage, that the majority of the crowd was here to see the last Uchiha fight, the Hokage motioned for the proctor to allow the fight between Sasuke and Gaara to proceed. This was met with cheer and relief as the two combatants got into position, squaring off against each other. With a puff of smoke, Kakashi disappeared from the arena floor and reappeared up next to Yang and her family, receiving a hard glare for his famous tardiness. The grey haired Jounin sheepishly rubbed the back of his head while apologizing, saying something about losing track of time. Yang turned back to the arena floor, the long anticipated match was about to begin, and she had to admit, while she hadn't really seen Sasuke before, he was kind of cute, if a little on the emo/broody side which she didn't care for.

As the procter called the start of the match, Sasuke leapt forward, throwing a punch to test the 'Ultimate Defense' that he had seen Gaara use in his fight against Lee. The test punches and kicks were all blocked easily, without the red head even moving or flinching, and after each blow, the sand shot out, trying to capture the attacking limb to crush it. Sasuke had the advantage of speed though, and was able to keep away from the attacking sand, activating his Sharingan to predict the movements. Switching up his strategies, the raven haired boy spit fire balls at his opponent, each one being blocked as well, the attacks seeming to do nothing against the automatic barrier that had formed into a sphere around the Suna Jinchuriki. Floating in the air, Sasuke was unable to dodge as a wave of sand lashed out, knocking him towards the arena wall. Flipping in the air, Sasuke landed with his feet on the wall, looking at his opponent with a smirk on his face. Three quick hand signs later, and his left hand was sparking with blue energy; Chidori, blue electricity that dances along the user's fist and arm, increasing piercing power and speed.

Sprinting down the wall, Sasuke sped towards his target, using his Sharingan to predict and dodge the spikes of sand shooting at him. As he reached the sphere, he thrust his hand into the ball, aiming where Gaara's shoulder should be. When the attack landed, everything went still for a moment, everyone's breath hitched in their throats. Did he do it? Did Sasuke Uchiha land a victorious blow on Gaara of the Desert? Suddenly a pained scream erupted from the sphere, the power rolling off of the red haired boy knocking the Uchiha backwards, his hand covered in sand and blood. He had landed his attack, and in the moment when Gaara felt pain again for the first time in years, his control over his Bijuu started to slip as he gave in to the demon's angry whispers. As the sphere of sand fell away, it revealed Gaara, half covered in sand, taking on the image of a tanuki. In this new form, he was too fast for the bearer of the Sharingan, batting him away before attempting to go on a murderous rampage. Seeing their brother's transformation beginning, Termai and Kankuro leapt down from the stands, each grabbing an arm and spiriting the younger boy away.

Yang had felt that something was off about Gaara, something familiar to herself. As she watched the fight, she could almost feel a connection to red haired boy. She felt a loneliness radiating off of him, a loneliness that she herself had known, before her family. Gaara was a boy that seemed to be shrouded in darkness, filled with hatred for everyone around him; when she was a small child, she had felt the whispers of darkness and hatred too, but she pushed them away when she met her first precious people. It was the memory of those feelings that made her feel the connection to the boy, and to believe that she could help him. A sense of dread came over her when she saw the sphere of sand envelop Gaara, Sasuke running at him with that blue lightning in his hand. She had wanted to jump down, to stop the fight, but Jiraiya's hand on her shoulder kept her in her seat, the gentle squeeze reassuring her. When she heard the scream, she stood up, her hands on the rails as she watched with wide eyes as the sand melted down around Gaara to reveal his half transformed body. Before she knew it, Gaara was gone; Temari and Kankuro had grabbed the boy and ran off with him, Sasuke quickly following the trio, Sakura quickly following suit.

There was commotion all around her, another village had planned and executed a scheme to invade Konoha, hoping to incite a war between them and their new ally, but Yang was focused on the fleeing Genin, between Jiraiya, Kakashi, Ozpin, Glynda and the rest, everything would be fine here, she had to make sure her friends were safe. With that thought, Yang leapt from the balcony, dispatching the enemies in her way with a single punch each; she followed after the strange boy that had more in common with her than she realized.

She was only a handful of seconds behind Sasuke and Sakura; during their time together, she'd learned that Sasuke was her teammate, and that Sakura had a thing for the last Uchiha. When she finally caught up to the group, she found Sakura pinned to a tree by sand, Sasuke was kneeling on the ground holding his right shoulder as if he was in pain. Temari and Kankuro were standing off and away from their younger brother, and it wasn't hard to understand why, the manic look on his face would cause anyone to back away from him.

A wave of sand shot forward, aimed at taking the Uchiha's head from his shoulders, and it would have, if not for a flash of yellow, knocking the sand away with. Violet eyes stared into the hate filled eyes of her enemy. "We don't have to do this," she called out to the boy. "We don't have to fight," she finished; the only answer she received was a maniacal laugh, taunting her and disregarding what she said.

'So, that's how it's going to be…' she thought as she took up her fighting stance, a typical boxing/brawling style, hands raised, weaker foot forward, and body half-turned. She knew it was coming, the sand shot out at her quickly, trying to slam into her like it had Lee, and Sakura, and Sasuke, rotating her whole body, she threw her punch to meet the attack, her fist glowing like a golden fire as her aura flooded her arm. When the two attacks met, the sand exploded outward, driven away by the force of Yang's punch.

Gaara's eyes widened at the strength and power of this girl, but what shocked him more was that the sand he'd used for that attack was no longer responding to his chakra control; he had plenty more sand to use, but this revelation was a disturbing one. Next Gaara chose to fling two spinning wads of sand at the girl as he leapt at her, each ball of sand was dispatched with ease, but the half-boy half-sand demon flying towards her was a different matter. A large claw made of sand made to take her head from her body, but she was already in motion, ducking out of the way of the attack; but Gaara's lunge was only a feint, as a blast of sand shot up from under the blonde fighter, slamming into her stomach and launching her backwards into a tree, cracking the stump as she hit.

"Yang!" came the weak cry from the barely conscious Sakura, unable to free herself from the confines of the sand.

Gaara let loose a laugh as he saw the foolish girl slam into the tree with enough force to break her spine. His moment of victory was cut short however, as that same girl stood up, her body glowing as if on fire; when she looked up to meet his gaze, he saw that her eyes were no longer violet, they were red, her hair glowing with that golden flame.

Yang launched herself at Gaara, knocking away all of his attacks with her punches, crossing the distance between them at a rate that alarmed the sand user as she suddenly appeared next to him, her fist impacting his gut as she followed the punch through, sending him flying backwards from the force. Yang took a moment to look at her hands, they looked different somehow, she'd channeled her aura before and got the same golden flames effect, but somehow it seemed different. She should be in pain from the blow she took, but instead she felt stronger, faster, like an unstoppable force. She was brought out of her thoughts when Gaara came flying towards her again, most of his body covered in sand now, his eyes held a fury she had never seen before. She blocked his swipe with her left arm, quickly countering with a blow to his face, knocking some of the sand away, before more replaced it. This struggle went on for a couple minutes, Gaara growing more and more furious with each clash, never landing another blow on the girl while she continuously countered his attacks. There was only one thing he could do to win this fight, he had to enter his voluntary sleep state and let Shukaku take the fight from here.

Jumping back to a safe distance, Gaara focused his chakra, sand bubbling up around him, more sand than he had used before. The sand quickly took the shape of a large raccoon looking thing, with Gaara sticking out of its head, looking like he was asleep. "You… have to… wake him up," came the voice of Sasuke, he'd been knocked out by Gaara's attack earlier against Yang; she saw the crimson of his Sharingan and guessed that was how he'd figured out Gaara's transformation. Nodding to the boy, she returned her sights to Gaara, and the giant sand demon he was little more than a pimple on. Focusing for a moment, she tried something she had only previously considered; she was going to mix her aura and chakra together, maybe that would give her enough power to break through the sand demon and make it to Gaara. Shukaku wouldn't give her the time she needed though, as it launched a series of attacks at the girl, forcing her to dodge out of the way and disrupt her focus.

During her evasion, Yang had landed next to Sasuke, turning in time to see a gigantic sand fist on its way to crush them. Lifting her arms, she caught the giant fist, stopping its descent with a grunt of effort. As she struggled to fend off the sand that would crush them, she heard a whisper from deep in her mind, a voice she hadn't heard in years. "You can't hope to beat Shukaku as you are, let me help you and together we can destroy your enemy," came the voice of the Kyubi, dripping hatred with every syllable. Shaking her head, she stamped down the voice, she wanted to help Gaara, not kill him. Searching deep within herself, as the ground beneath her feet cracked from the pressure, she found another source of light; not the bright yellow light of her aura, this light was soft blue light, her chakra. As she pulled this blue light out, she felt another surge of strength flood her body. Using this strength, she forced Shukaku back again, the explosion of power temporarily overwhelming the one-tailed demon. The yellow and blue flames swirled around the girl as she launched forward, pummeling the creature with a flurry of punches and kicks, the sand demon reeling in pain.

For all her effort and success in fighting the Shukaku, the tailed beast had far greater stamina than she, and she was burning through her aura and chakra reserves while the giant sand demon had barely even tapped his. So while Yang was gradually slowing down, Shukaku was still fighting at the same level. With a sigh, the voice from earlier chose this time to speak again, "If you're not going to use my power to kill, then at least use it to survive, I will not die because my container refuses to win at all costs," the demonic voice said, flooding Yang's body with power. "One last thing, little vixen, if you wake up the boy on Shukaku's head, he will lose control and his sand body will fall apart," the demon fox finished, the image of him curling into a ball to take a nap being the last thing in her mind before the rush of power took hold.

Meeting Shukaku's eyes again, her red eyes with slit pupils burning with confidence that erased the fatigue that had been building in her body, she felt different, she felt super charged. The ground under her feet cratered as she leapt, the sand demon unable to follow the blonde girl's movements. Pain erupted on his back as her fist drove into the beast's body, her power overriding Shukaku's control over the sand that made up his body. Again and again, she rained blow after blow on the Sand Demon's body; with each blow his form got smaller and smaller, Gaara's unconscious form appearing as the sand encasing him fell away to reform Shukaku's lost limbs. With her target now in sight, Yang sped around the shrinking demon, dodging the flailing attacks that were begging to find purchase. As she rounded the front of the panicking demon, she adjusted her aim, jumping towards the sleeping red head on Shukaku's head. The tailed beast caught a glimpse of the golden beauty flying straight at him, swinging his arm of sand to intercept her. Using her left hand, she braced against the attack, using it as a springboard to launch herself higher. With her fist cocked back, she gave one last cry as she closed in on her target, "Wakie wakie sleepy head," her fist collided with Gaara's face, she had pulled her aura and chakra back, she didn't want to kill the boy, she only wanted to wake him up. The impact dislodged Gaara from Shukaku's head, the second he left the spot, the beast cried out in pain as his body crumbled.

Gaara's unconscious form landed limply on the ground with Yang landing not far away. Breathing heavily, she watched Gaara's body, as the sand started to return to him. Walking over to the prone boy, she reached down, placing her hand on his head, pushing a small amount of her chakra into his body to disrupt the sleeping jutsu. A brief moment later, and pale green eyes opened to see the relieved and smiling violet eyes above him. "Hey there Red, have a nice nap?" Yang asked.

"Why… why didn't you kill me?" Gaara responded, his body drained of energy.

"Because I wanted to help you," she responded simply.

"Help me? How can you help me? You don't know anything about me," the red head responded, his green eyes filling with anger.

"I know that you're alone," the blonde started, her smile gone from her face. "I was alone too, a little girl, all alone, drowning in sadness and hatred. Sadness because I had no one, I was an orphan, kicked out onto the streets when I was five; hatred because everyone ignored me," she continued, never breaking eye contact. "But then, one day, I met my new family, and they saved me from the loneliness, sadness and hatred. I know what it's like to be alone, and I don't want that for anyone," she finished solemnly, turning her head to look up at the bright sun overhead.

"But I'm your enemy," Gaara almost spat back, not wanting to believe that someone cared, no one would care about him, why should they?

"No, you're not my enemy…" she replied, meeting his eyes again, the fiery determination in her violet eyes burning into his. "You're not my enemy Gaara, but I would like to be your friend," a tiny smirk growing on her lips at the hopeful glimmer she saw in his pale green eyes.

"My… friend?" Gaara muttered to himself as the thought played around in his head.

With their brother defeated, Temari and Kankuro, who had largely been forgotten during the battle, appeared next to the fallen boy. "We don't want to fight, we only want to get our brother out of here," Temari said, her body tensing in case they needed to flee from her fellow blonde.

"Take care of him, if he's your brother, then it's your duty to save him from the loneliness that consumed him," Yang said, turning away to help her friends, seeing Sasuke holding an unconscious, but breathing Sakura in his arms. She heard the sand siblings depart, heading away from Konoha.

Walking up to the downed Uchiha, she asked "Can you walk, or do you need me to carry you?" with a smirk on her face. Blushing slightly at the thought, Sasuke had to admit that, while she wasn't his type, she was too loud and brash, she was beautiful and strong. Attempting to stand, he stumbled, being caught by Yang before he fell over on top of Sakura. "While I'm sure Sakura would love to wake up with you on top of her, we should probably get you back to the village before you take your pants off," she joked, getting an incredulous glare from the raven haired boy. The situation wasn't helped as he was placed onto her back, before the blonde knelt down to pick up and carry the sleeping pinkette in her arms, leaving Sasuke to hang on by wrapping his arms around her neck. Slowly the three made their way back towards Konoha, silence falling over them on their journey.

Walking into a small clearing, Yang smiled as she heard a Bullhead arrive overhead, slowly descending to land. Her father, sister, and Kakashi all jumped off the airship, running over to meet them, Kakashi taking Sakura from her arms as Sasuke let go of her neck to stand on his own. A medical team approached the group, checking the unconscious girl for any serious injuries before moving onto Sasuke. After they were certain that none of the teens were in need of immediate medical attention, the group moved to board the Bullhead and return to Konoha.

As the aircraft touched down, its passengers disembarked, Sasuke and Kakashi walking to the hospital, following the medics that were transporting Sakura. Yang looked in the direction her friend was being taken, before turning to face her father and sister with a smile. Ruby reached up and smacked Yang on the back of her head, glaring at the blonde as she clutched the point of impact. "Ow, what the hell was that for?" she asked.

"That was for running off and making us worry!" Ruby yelled back clearly upset with her older sister. Before Yang could retort, she was suddenly enveloped by Ruby's arms, the smaller girl shaking slightly as she cried her worries out.

Smiling down at the shorter girl, Yang wrapped her arms around her, "I'm ok, shhhh, I'm ok," she comforted, rubbing her sister's head affectionately; turning her head to face her father, "Is everyone else ok? What happened here?"

"A few cuts and bruises, but everyone is fine. There was an assassination attempt on Ozpin and the Hokage, but thanks to Glynda and Jiraiya, they are both alive and well. It seems someone was trying to disrupt the treaty we signed five years ago," Taiyang answered. He could see the tired look on Yang's face and decided it would be best to get the girls back to the Ambassador's Residence so they could rest; today had been a long day. They only had a few days left before they needed to head back to Patch. "Common girls, lets head back, I think we could all use a rest," he said, putting his arms around his daughters, leading them off.

Sakura had made a quick recovery, as did Sasuke, the criminals responsible for the attack were locked away and the village was safe. Apparently, the Kazekage was an imposter, some creep name Orochimaru who wanted to destroy Konoha. He had been stopped, but he was able to flee before he could be captured. Jiraiya was leaving on a two part mission, to track down Orochimaru, and to find Tsunade; it seemed that Hiruzen finally agreed that he was too old to retain the title of Hokage, and had decided to pass it down… again. Jiraiya would be gone for a few months while he tracked his former teammates.

On the morning of their departure, Taiyang, Yang, Ruby, Ozpin, Glynda, and their entourage had gathered by the gate leading to the clearing where their Bullhead was waiting to take them back to Vale. The Hokage, Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Choiji, and a couple others gathered to see their friends off; Ino and Sakura standing off to the side with Yang. "So, which one of you is going to bag Sasuke first?" Yang asked with a smirk on her face, peeking over Sakura's shoulder to get one last look at the Uchiha. Both Ino and Sakura blushed deeply, unable to form a coherent answer. Yang leaned in closely, her head between theirs, "If one of you doesn't snag him, I might have to come back and claim him for myself," she said, winking at the raven haired boy, earning a quizzical look from the boy.

Both girls looked at her in shock, she wouldn't… would she? The two friends turn, looking to see who, or what Yang was looking at, finding the source of their discussion in her sights. Flustered, Sakura stammered out, "B-b-but you c-can't go after Sasuke-kun!" causing Ino to nod her agreement.

Yang let out a laugh as she walked back towards the larger group of people, turning her head to call back over her shoulder, "Don't worry you two, I won't steal your boy-toy away," making sure to be loud enough for Sasuke to hear, getting both of the girls and the boy to blush a deep red. Everyone else looked at her like she was crazy as she passed the group and boarded the airship, pulling a pair of headphones out of her bag and turning on her favorite music. Soon all the passengers were onboard and the craft was lifting off, their friends from Konoha waving goodbye as the Bullhead started its journey back to the Kingdom of Vale.


	4. Chapter 4

Signal Academy, Third Period, Weapon Design and Theory; her second favorite class, right after Combat Basics; Yang was currently revamping the design of the bracers she'd worn on her trip to Konoha two years ago. She wanted to add more functionality, something to either reduce the aura cost of her attacks, or give her another option for power without using aura for every attack. The teacher this year had just finished a lesson on using high caliber dust rounds, and the recoil from them, to propel the user short distances at high speeds. Given that she was a close range fighter, she didn't need distance rounds so much, so she elected for a shotgun type effect; she also wanted them to have a compact form, something kinda stylish, but that could be activated quickly.

With one bracer laying in front of her, she tinkered with the firing mechanism, luckily the textbook she had open went into great detail, and gave her an idea for a trigger system. She had forged the plates that would make up her bracers very carefully, she wanted them to lock in place quickly when activated, but also be able to smoothly slide to and from the activate and passive states. Ammunition was another problem to figure out; she had decided on 12-gauge, burn dust rounds, but she needed to figure out the action; the process of expelling a used round while loading a fresh round and arming the firing mechanism. She had tried several methods in other prototypes, but none worked out as well as she'd hoped. Stumped, she set that part aside and picked up the trigger system she had come up with, it was a palm-squeeze trigger; basically if she squeezed her hand closed fast enough and hard enough, it would discharge the current round. Clenching her hand to activate the trigger… you clench your hand when you punch, and you have to draw your hand back to ready your punch. Aha! That was it; she could use a modified pump-action to expel the old rounds and chamber new ones. She had already decided to have the middle section slide back to allow her to load her ammunition around her wrist; that plate would be heavy enough to act as a pump-action slide. With this thought in mind she went back to her task, quickly making the adjustments while she still had class time left to test out her concept.

That night, she spent a few extra hours at home tinkering with the changes she was making to her weapons; what was she going to call them anyway? 'All good weapons have a name right?' she thought, listening to her favorite song "I Burn" on her headphones, a few different names coming to mind before instantly being rejected. 'Power Glove? No, that sounds stupid; Dragon Fist? Nah.' Because of the music playing in her ears, she didn't hear the sound of footsteps coming up behind her, the light tap on her shoulder being the first notification that she wasn't alone in the workshop. Turning her head she saw a tall, sleepy, girl with long brown hair looking at her. Pulling her headphones off she smiled, eyes closed, and rubbing the back of her head, "Oh, hey Tenten, I didn't wake you up did I?" she asked the brunette.

"Nah, I was on my way to the bathroom and saw the light on in here, and decided to see what you were up to," the older girl responded. Tenten was staying with Yang and her family as a sort of foreign exchange student. She was attending Signal Academy for a year to learn the techniques they used in Vale for making weapons. Since she had been making weapons in Konoha for a while, she was the most logical candidate; the two girls had met during the kunoichi classes they had attended together. She was excited to visit the land unknown to her, and to learn about dust and its many uses.

"I'm just trying to improve my design for my weapons, I have the general concept down but it feels clunky and awkward," she'd been getting frustrated, pouring over her drawings and designs, trying to figure out what to change and improve.

"Mind if I take a look?" Tenten asked, leaning over Yang's shoulder to get a peek at the papers in front of her.

"Sure, any help I can get would be great," Yang said, standing up and moving to let the brunette sit in the chair.

After a few moments of examining the drawings and designs, Tenten grabbed a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil. After about fifteen minutes of drawing and making notes, the brunette stood up, smiling as the blonde came back from pacing around the room. Yang took the seat, and looked over the designs Tenten had made, tilting her head to one side, then the other, finally smiling as she looked up at the other girl. "It's perfect Tenten, thanks a lot!" Yang proclaimed, almost jumping out of the chair to hug the weapons kunoichi.

"You're welcome Yang, now, can you please put me down?" she said, Yang looking sheepish for lifting her half a foot off the ground. Placing Tenten's feet back on the floor, Yang went back to the designs, tracing her fingers over the pieces, running a mental image of how badass they would look.

"Hey, Tenten, what's this part at the top of the page?" Yang asked, finally noticing the scribbled words.

"Oh, that, it's a name I came up with, kind of on the spot, it's Ember Celica. What do you think?" the brunette responded

"Ember Celica… I love it," the blonde replied with a bright smile. "I love it so much I could kiss you," she continued, meaning it as a joke… well kind of, Tenten was cute after all.

"Ok," came the response, as the one year older girl stepped forward, capturing the momentarily stunned girl's lips with her own in a brief kiss. Smirking to herself, Tenten turned and walked away, adding a little sway to her hips, knowing that violet eyes would be following her. She'd heard about the kisses shared between Yang, Ino, and Sakura, seeing some of them herself; they were all in the same kunoichi classes after all. She decided to try it out for herself, and while she would say she still preferred boys, she had liked it.

Yang stood there, trying to process what had just happened, her eyes drawn to the swaying hips of the retreating girl. Shaking her head sharply, she stretched her arms and yawned, it was time for bed; she might not have school in the morning, but she needed her sleep. Turning off the lights in the workshop, she walked the short distance back to her bedroom, crawling under the sheets and drifting off to sleep.

The weekend had been relaxing, Yang and Ruby took Tenten to the beach, for a 'girls day' where the three girls spent time swimming, sunbathing, and talking about things like boys, school, and things in Vale versus things in Konoha. The girls had noticed they had been drawing a fair amount of attention from the boys around them, Yang and Tenten especially, in their bikinis, Yang's a color gradient from bright yellow to burnt orange, with her burning heart symbol on both the left breast and the back of her bottoms; Tenten wore a dark green, brown and black bikini; while Ruby wore a more conservative one piece suit, mostly black with crimson roses on the back.; she was still a little self-conscious about her body. The blonde was certainly enjoying all the attention she was getting, she had grown into a very beautiful young woman; at fifteen years old, she could pass for early twenties, not that she went to bars and clubs mind you. Yang and Tenten were having fun, going back and forth between tormenting Ruby about all the cute boys checking her out, to flirting with, and teasing the boys that were checking them out. Despite all the winks, smiles, and kisses blown, none of the boys could gather the courage to approach the two beauties lying on the beach. One group of boys did approach them, older than the girls by a year or two, "Hey ladies, want to play some volley ball?" the offer came.

Looking at the two sisters, getting nods, Tenten replied, "Sure, sounds like fun." They played three on three, with Ruby up front, her quickness great for getting under the ball, Tenten was in the back, her exceptional aim making her great for setting the ball, and Yang in the middle as the one to spike the ball.

The game was fun, with several good volleys between the two teams, eventually though, the girls won; all of the players had a light layer of sand on their bodies. One of the boys, he was tall, toned, and had black hair, offered to help Yang wash the sand off. Yang replied with a flirtatious, "Is that all you'd help me with?" getting a confidant smile back.

Leaning close to her, he whispered, "I can help you with a lot more, but here might not be the best place," is a suggestive tone, the smirk evident in his voice.

Laughing as she walked off towards the beach showers, she turned to call back to the boy, "Maybe some other time big boy," disappearing from his sight as she entered the shower area.

Tenten had a similar experience with one of the other boys, giving him pretty much the same treatment. Ruby on the other hand, was blushing bright red, not used to boys hitting on her, as she stammered her apology and all but ran after her sister.

When lunch time rolled around, the girls decided to head up to a nearby café, for sandwiches and tea. This area being a beach town, it was common to see girls walking around in bikini tops with a towel or wrap skirt around their waist and sandals on their feet. And that was how they walked into the open-air café, the waiter wearing an open, colorful, button-up shirt, shorts and tennis shoes. Every time he came by, Yang would wink at, and flirt with the guy, earning the girls a free milk shake of their choice. The guy had asked for Yang's phone number when he brought them the check, she had written some random number down, not wanting to give her real number to some guy she didn't know; besides, she was fifteen, he was at least eighteen to twenty, and that was too big of an age gap for her at the moment.

With their meal finished, the three girls set off walking down the boardwalk, looking at stores that they passed, trying on different things like hats and clothes, but not finding anything they liked. While walking between stores, Ruby decided to ask the question that had been on her mind, "Yang, why did you flirt with that guy, just to give him a fake phone number? Isn't that mean?"

Tilting her head to the side in thought for a moment, the older sister replied, "I like to flirt because it's fun. But just because I flirt with a guy doesn't mean I'm going to give him my phone number," she reasoned. "If I gave every guy I've flirted with my phone number, we'd never get any sleep because we'd be answering the phone all day long," she continued, seeing Ruby's eyes widen as the realization hit her. Yang flirts a lot, it's a part of her personality, and that would be a lot of guys calling. Ruby would have to drop out of Signal and be her sister's personal secretary/phone screener/she didn't even want to think about it.

With the sun beginning to set, the trio headed for home, the short walk uneventful, a few boys getting in some final cat calls, trying to get their attention; Yang moving to wrap her arm around Tenten's waist, the brunette matching the motion, giving the appearance of being a couple. This had two effects: reducing the cat calls from boys wanting one girl or the other, but also increasing the cat calls wanting to see something to fuel their fantasies. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on who you are, Yang smirked as she turned to Tenten, pulling the older girl in for a kiss. The brunette didn't know what to do at first, deciding to 'just go with it' and returned the kiss, hearing hoots and hollers from their audience before they continued on towards home, Ruby trailing behind them with a deep blush on her face.

The rest of the weekend passed by without further excitement, the girls returned to school on Monday, rested and ready to tackle the week. Yang brought the new designs Tenten had drawn up for her to her Weapon Design and Theory class. She started forging the pieces she would need to put together to create her Ember Celica. The individual pieces were completed in two days' time, the process of assembling them into their completed form, however, took the rest of the week. Once she had one put together completely, she had Tenten look it over to make sure nothing was out of place; the weapons mistress giving it a thorough inspection before calling it a success. With her glorious, and badass, weapons completed, there was only one thing left to do; she stamped her emblem, a burning heart, into piece that acts as the pump-action slide.

As giddy as a child on Winter Solstice Morning, Yang spent the better part of the weekend collapsing and expanding her Ember Celica, showing them off to her father, Ruby, their uncle Qrow, Tenten, Jiraiya, and Kakashi. As a student at Signal, she wasn't allowed to carry live ammunition outside of the designated areas of the school, such as the firing range and combat arenas.

With her new weapons, Jiraiya and Kakashi spent time working them into Yang's training routine and fighting style; focusing on blocking both ranged and melee attacks. The added weight threw her off for a little while, but with added weight came added striking power. Her father had given her some "force" dust rounds; rounds that gave the same propulsion as burn dust, but don't produce a projectile. With these she was able to figure out, and incorporate the effect she desired; adding a similar effect as channeling her aura, without draining it. She would have to keep spare ammunition on her, but that wouldn't be a problem; she'd already bought special pouches that could store two reloads each.

The blonde brawler was currently engaged in a sparring match with Kakashi's shadow clones; the goal to test and improve how she dealt with multiple targets, while allowing him insight on ways to improve her technique; fixing blind spots, overextensions, and places where she let her guard down. This also had the effect of increasing her stamina while using her new weapons. So far she had destroyed three dozen clones while only taking a few hits. Her breath was ragged and shallow as she destroyed the last clone of the round, falling into a seated position as Ruby handed her a bottle of water. "Thanks sis," Yang said with a tired smile.

"Ok, I think that's enough for today, good work Yang," Kakashi complimented with his signature eye-smile. The blonde returned the smile, standing up slowly as they began the trek back into the house. As they walked, Yang flicked her wrists, causing her Ember Celica to retract into its passive form, appearing to be two simple, golden bracelets. Even after practicing so much with them, she still had to marvel at Tenten's design, all the pieces rotating into place, smoothly, before securing into one of its two forms.

With the end of the school year coming up, Yang and Tenten were making last minute tweaks on the weapons they'd made, as well as working on the other projects that would determine their grades, but the weapons project was the most important… well to them it was. Tenten had made over a dozen weapons throughout the year, unable to decide on her favorite to submit for the project. She had a pair of short swords that could be locked together; creating a sort of sword staff, in the middle was a chamber for dust that would alter the elemental effect of the weapon. Then there was the long sword that housed a thin, flexible, metal cord along the length of the blade; it could be transformed from a three foot long blade into a nine foot long bladed whip and back again with a snap of the wrist. There several others, but she had to choose one to submit for the class. In the end she went with a pair of tonfa with a rotary dust cylinder to add elemental effects to her strikes. They were fairly simple compared to the others, but she had spent far more time working on the detail, making them look absolutely beautiful, while still packing plenty of power.

Throughout the school year she'd also been giving Ruby advice on how to design and build the weapon that the younger girl had been calling Crescent Rose. It was a massive undertaking, a collapsible scythe with a built-in high-powered sniper rifle that could also use the recoil to propel the user faster, an idea she had grown fond of while watching Yang use her Ember Celica. With the greater focus on her school work, Yang had had less time to travel to Konoha, only being able to make one trip per year during the break between semesters. She had met Tsunade, who had taken over as Hokage. That had been an interesting encounter. Apparently the Third Hokage had left a few details out when describing them to their fellow blonde. Tsunade was skeptical about Yang's choice of dress, all but calling her a tramp when they first met. That conversation had sparked Yang to challenge the older woman to a sparring match, Jiraiya trying to calm the situation down, lest the two destroy half of the village. Needless to say, Jiraiya's luck with blondes was as good as it ever was; both Yang and Tsunade lending a fist to send the old pervert through the wall.

And so they had gone to one of the training grounds further away from the village, collateral damage would be harder to explain, especially when civilians got hurt. The two seemed fairly well matched, Yang was weaker than Tsunade, but that could be chalked up to age and experience; but with that age came slower movement and less flexibility. Those were two areas that Yang exceled in, pushing her advantage to its maximum, twisting and dodging out of the way of blows that could probably kill her; she may have discovered that her semblance gave her strength from taking damage, but still, a punch strong enough to create a crater five hundred feet wide, would probably be lethal to most anyone.

Tsunade had won the fight, but not before growing to actually appreciate and even like Yang for her determination and off-the-cuff battle strategy. In a way, Yang was so much like herself that Tsunade even considered teaching her the super strength she used, at least until the younger girl showed the same kind of technique using aura instead of chakra. She would need some fine tuning, but the girl could be a force of nature if properly trained. Yang was looking forward to having a rematch with the Fifth Hokage, especially now that her Ember Celica were completed. Jiraiya's worst fear had come to be, both beautiful, feisty, and super strong blondes in his life had met, and even worse, they were getting along well.


	5. Chapter 5

Yang was ecstatic, today was October 8th, and tomorrow she would be heading back to Konoha to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. She had kept in contact with her friends in the shinobi village, but hadn't been able to visit as often. And despite being in the middle of the school year, she was being allowed to take a break from classes at Signal, provided she continued the coursework while on her leave-of-absence, to spend the week of her birthday in Konoha. She still remembered what Kakashi had told her, so many years ago, about how she'd be told of her birth parents on her sixteenth birthday, which was just four days away. She nearly ran all the way home, waving to her friends on the way, many of them wishing her a happy birthday as she passed.

Ruby was waiting for her on the porch; she'd gotten out of school early because her last period teacher had been sick. The younger girl was tinkering with the prototype scythe she'd built, trying to smoothen out the transition from collapsed to expanded form. Looking up from her weapon, she saw the dust trail kicked up by her sister; Ruby smiling at the blonde's excitement.

A split second before colliding with her younger sister, Yang jumped, flipping and twisting over the girl with black hair and red highlights, landing behind the smaller girl before picking her up in a crushing hug.

"Ack… Yang… can't… breathe," Ruby said, gasping for air when her older sister released her.

"Heh, sorry Sis," the blonde said, turning to walk into the house; she had a couple hours to pack, not that it would take her that long; she always kept a bag packed and ready in case she needed to head out quickly. It was something her father taught her and Ruby; they never knew when they would get missions as Huntresses. She was looking forward to having the chance for a rematch with the Fifth Hokage, especially now that her Ember Celica were completed.

That night, Yang could hardly sleep; she'd been dreaming of this for years; soon, she'd finally know who her birth parents were. Of the many dreams she had, in some, her parents were heroes, saving the world from all sorts of bad guys and monsters. In others however, they were criminals, running away from something bad they'd done, and leaving her at the orphanage to lessen their load; it only made sense after all, you couldn't travel nearly as fast if you had to care for a child. It was those dreams that she was afraid of being true, but they made the most sense. Sure she knew about the Kyubi sealed inside of her, but Kakashi had mentioned her parents' enemies coming after her. He even said that they'd loved her, that they were dear to him. But he was a shinobi, someone who would kill if ordered, and had killed already; she could see it in his eyes, when he thought she wasn't looking. The mystery had dominated her dreams for several years, dwindling slowly as time went by; but now those dreams were back. At one point, she didn't know when, but Ruby had walked into her room, crawled into bed next to her older sister, and hugged her; that simple act washing away all the chaotic thoughts and dreams, finally allowing the violet eyes to find restful sleep.

The morning came too quickly, Yang getting dressed while still half asleep; the smell of coffee and food doing wonders to wake her up. When she was ready, she, her father and sister all loaded up onto the Bullhead waiting to take them to Konoha.

The trip, like all the others, would take eight hours. And just like all those other trips, Yang and Ruby spent a couple hours playing card games, board games, napping, eating snacks, anything really to help pass the time. Currently they were playing a new game Yang had gotten as an early birthday present, a strategy game called "Remnant: The Game"; a game where up to four players build their forces and battle for control of Remnant. They were still learning the game and trying to figure out what all the cards did.

The time had passed quickly; they would soon be descending into the area that Konoha had built up over the years into an airship dock. It was how they traded goods with Vale after all. The family of three disembarked the airship after landing, dock workers offloading luggage and preparing to refuel the Bullhead. The walk to the Ambassador's Residence was a short one; Yang was surprised that no one had met them at the docks like they normally did. 'Everyone's probably on missions or something' she figured, it wasn't unexpected for the shinobi of a village to be out on missions after all. All of her friends had been promoted to either Chunin or Jounin by now, so they would likely be far busier. As they entered the Residence, Yang noticed that all the lights were off, normally the staff would leave the lights on for them after cleaning up and stocking up on food and other supplies.

Yang entered the living room first, followed by Ruby and their father, with him shutting the door behind him. "Hey dad, turn the lights on would ya? It's dark in here," Yang called out, she knew the layout by heart, but still, something felt off.

When the lights came on, a loud, collective, "SURPRISE!" rang out, all of her friends, from Konoha and Vale, were there, all smiling at the stunned look on the girl's face. There was a banner overhead that read 'Happy 16th Birthday Yang' and everyone had some kind of noise maker and party hat. The blonde's expression quickly changed to an excited smile; everyone was here, Ino, Shikamaru, Choiji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Sakura, Sasuke, some new guy with black hair and pale skin…, Tenten, Neji, Bushy Brows, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, even Hiruzen was here. She couldn't be happier as Ruby and her father gave her a quick hug before moving to join the rest of the group.

Everyone came over to personally wish the girl a happy birthday, Yang noticing how close Sakura and Sasuke were standing, almost like they were attached at the hip, a bright smile on the pinkette's face. Ino was also standing noticeably close to that guy she didn't know, the pale skin guy. As she talked with her friends, she learned that his name was Sai, and that he and Ino had started dating a few months ago. When the blonde questioned Sakura and Sasuke, they confessed to have started dating around the same time. Yang was happy for her friends, as she moved around the room, talking to different groups about different things. Making her way around the room, she saw Shikamaru sitting in the corner, looking bored as usual, and next to him was none other than Temari, Gaara's older sister. "Ooooo, I didn't think Shika would ever get the motivation to date a girl," Yang jabbed at her friend, earning a smirk from her fellow blonde.

"Oh he didn't," Temari answered. "I was assigned as the liaison from Suna, and Shika was assigned as my counterpart," the explanation continued. "A few formal dinners later and I basically pulled the lazy bum in for a kiss," she finished, getting a chuckle from the birthday girl.

"Well, Shika, looks like you got your hands full," Yang joked again.

"Tch. Troublesome women," he replied ignoring the giggles from the two women.

Further on into the room, she found Kiba chatting away, boasting about some mission he'd been on, Hinata standing next to him, correcting his over exaggerations and giggling every time he looked at her with that 'stop ruining my moment' look. Looking down, she noticed that the two were holding hands. "Wow, Kiba, you did pretty well for yourself, she's quit the looker," Yang said, causing the Hyuga heiress to blush a deep red, and Kiba to sputter a bit. "If you're not careful, I might steal her away from you," she whispered, winking and blowing a kiss at the dark blue haired girl, loud enough for both of them to hear, Hinata's eyes shooting wide open and Kiba coughing as he choked briefly on his drink he had just sipped on. Everyone else in the small group burst into laughter, Yang's grin shifting into a friendly smile towards the beautiful girl.

After visiting everyone, something she'd learned from her father about parties and social events, it was time to move on to the birthday cake. They all sang 'Happy Birthday' to her… well almost all, Sasuke didn't sing, period, Sai just gave a smile, and Shikamaru just sighed, earning himself an elbow to his side from Temari. After the singing, Yang closed her eyes, took a deep breathe, and blew out the candles on the cake. Cutting the cake, she gave a slice to each person as they walked up, choosing to save the last piece for herself.

Once the cake was finished, it was time to move on to the gifts, she hadn't really wanted much, always believing that friends and family were the best gifts you could hope for. Most had gotten her small things, trinkets, and jewelry; Tenten had gotten her a cleaning and repair kit to help her maintain her weapons; Ino had gotten her perfume, lilacs, her favorite scent. Her sister, Ruby, had gotten her a badass coat, a short sleeved long coat, orange with black flames on the bottom and a high collar. Kiba, trying to be funny, got her a box of condoms, probably trying to pay her back for the penis pump she'd gotten him last year; now that had been funny. Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Tsunade said that their present would come in the morning.

Of all the gifts she'd gotten, her father's was the best, in her own opinion, not that she'd say it out loud. The tiny wrapped box contained a single key with a note, "Look outside the back door." Her interest piqued, she, and her friends and family, went to the back door of the house, where she found a yellow, black, orange and red motorcycle. Her eyes lit up as she realized that it was the same motorcycle she had been looking at last month when they happened to walk by a dealership. On the bike were a helmet, and a receipt for driving lessons. The wide, bright smile on her face told her father of the overwhelming joy she felt about the gift; well, the smile and the crushing hug she had wrapped around him helped too.

Yang spent the rest of the evening telling her friends about how life was at Signal, how her combat class captured small Grimm for them to fight, teaching critical weak points, strategies, and fighting styles. She even demonstrated the completed Ember Celica and having them switch between their two forms.

As the party wound down, the guests started leaving in small groups, leaving the family to settle in and get some rest. That evening, Yang spent some time going through her gifts, she treasured each one she had gotten; before her adoption the only gifts she ever received were treats to Ichiraku Ramen. She had promised herself to never take gifts for granted, especially those from her friends. She'd gotten mostly earrings and necklaces, some with lockets containing pictures of the friends who'd given her the gift. She wasn't really the type of girl to wear jewelry, but on the off chance she decided to dress up for some reason, having a nice pair of earrings and a necklace to wear would be nice. She hadn't told her father yet, but there was a party dress that she bought, it was "fashionable", meaning it showed off a good amount of skin while hiding just enough to still be considered clothing.

The next morning came quicker than she would have liked, she was excited to finally learn about her parents, but as the moment came closer, the more apprehensive she felt. She wanted to know, sure, but at the same time she was still a little afraid. She got ready like normal, more going through the motions while her mind was elsewhere. Before she knew it, she was standing infront of the door to the Hokage's office. What surprised everyone inside was the polite knocking that sounded, announcing her arrival; normally she just burst through the door. Quietly, she walked up to sit in the chair infront of the massive desk, the seven others in the room surprised at her silence. It was a moment before Tsunade spoke up, breaking the unsettling quiet.

"Hey brat, happy birthday," the older blonde said, snapping the younger out of her trance like state. On either side of the Hokage desk stood Hiruzen, Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Tsunade was seated in her chair. Off to the side were Taiyang and Ruby, the younger sister concerned over Yang's unusually quiet demeanor. Looking down at her hand, she realized she was holding the scroll she'd been given eight years ago.

"Are you ready?" Jiraiya asked, he knew that this must be difficult for the girl, what she was about to learn could change everything she thought she knew, but it would also explain why she had to be kept in the dark for so long.

"I think so," she replied. "How does this work?" she asked, she didn't understand how sesling jutsu worked.

"You focus your chakra into the seal and it'll release, allowing the scroll to open," the toad sage answered.

"Is that all?" Ruby asked, trying to understand. "Why couldn't we have opened it up before?"

"Well, it's tuned to Yang's chakra, so only she can open it," came the response. "As to why we had to wait so long... Chakra... ages with the person," he explained. "Yang's father was a master at sealing jutsu, he made it so that it would only respond to her chakra once she turned 16," he finished, trying to explain without going too indepth.

Looking down at the scroll again, Yang focused her chakra, watching as the seal lit up before fading away, the lock on the scroll clicking open. Slowly, hesitantly, she pulled the piece of rolled up paper open. As the contents of the scroll were revealed, she raised her eyebrow, all she saw was she thought was another seal, far more intricate than the one that had held the paper closed. Looking up at her Godfather for a moment to see his nod to continue, Yang proceeded to channel chakra into this seal as well. As the energy flowed through the inked design, a light flashed brightly, briefly blinding everyone in the room. When the light died down, everyone looked to see Yang, asleep in Kakashi's arms before he laid her on the ground at Jiraiya's advice. As her sleep deepened, two energies swirled around the girl's body, blue and red fighting for dominance. Tsunade, Kakashi, Taiyang and Ruby were about to move to the prone girl's aid before they were stopped by Hiruzen and Jiraiya.

"Wait," Jiraiya said, looking down, a sense of helplessness filling his heart. "I don't know what Minato planned when he made that scroll, but it's for Yang to experience."

"Can you wake her up again?" Ruby asked, a tinge of fear in her voice for her unconcious sister.

"We can, but it would be better if she wakes up on her own, she needs to know who her birth parents were," Hiruzen answered the younger sister.

***Break***

'Where am I?' violet eyes wondered, as they opened to take in their surroundings. This place looked... it looked like Signal Academy. The red carpeted hallway had doors on either side, each door held a strange familiarity to her; but she'd never been to this part of the school before. Reaching the first door on her left, she grasped the handle, a sudden surge of emotion filling her at the contact. Fear, that was the emotion she felt. Turning the handle with a shaking hand, her mind was flooded with memory.

"Where is she?" came the first voice, filled with anger and hatred.

"I think she went this way," called out a second, getting closer with each word. An eerie light preceeding the ever growing sound of footsteps. As the crowd turned the corner, Yang, suddenly four years old, took off, sprinting as fast as her little legs would carry her, trying to find someplace safe to hide.

Yang was wrenched back from the door, breething deeply at the memory she had long forgotten. Her legs were shaking as she moved down to another door, trepidation gripped her as she reached for this one's handle. Closing her eyes tightly, she grasped the door handle, instead of fear, she felt a happiness she hadn't felt in years. Pulling the door open, the memory flashed before her eyes.

A lonely five year old girl sat alone on a swing, her blonde hair covering her crying violet eyes. She didn't notice their approach until they spoke.

"Hey, whatcha doin over here all by yourself?" the blue eyed blonde asked. "I'm Ino."

"I'm Sakura, what's yer name?" the green eyed pinkette asked.

"N..n...naru. My name is Naru," the swing girl responded, peeking out at them from behind the hair covering her eyes.

"Well, hi Naru, wanna come play with us?" Ino asked, her bright smile chasing away the gloom that filled the area.

"Yeah! Let's play!" Sakura added, each girl taking one of Naru's hands, and leading her towards their group of friends.

A tear rolled down Yang's face as the memory hit her, that was the first time she'd met two of her best friends. She'd been thinking some very dark thoughts before they walked up, but they pulled her away from those thoughts. They very likely had saved her that day, and they didn't even know it. She would have to tell them, to thank them for everything they'd done, and let them know how much that one gesture meant to her. Closing the door, she turned to look further down the hallway, seeing a strange glow at the end of it.

She walked towards the glowing light, hoping it would tell her what she came here to learn. As she went through the glowing doorway, she noticed the hallway opened up into a massive room, easily twice the size of the cafeteria back at Signal. In the middle of the room was an enormous cage; behind the cage was a gigantic, red-orange fox curled up in a sleeping position. At the base of the cage sat two people who were facing the fox. As she approached the couple, they turned to face her. The man had blonde, spikey hair, blue eys, and a kind smile. The woman had long red hair, violet eyes, and a loving smile.

"Hello, Naru," the man said, turning to face her completely.

"Hello, my baby girl," the woman spoke, her arms open slightly, invitingly.

"M-m-mom? D-dad?" Yang asked, fighting back the tears that were welling up. "Is it really you?" she asked, taking a hesitant step forward.

"Yes, it's us," the man answered, taking a step with the woman, towards the sixteen year old girl.

Yang took one step forward, then another, and another, until she was running towards her birth parents, the pair smiling as they opened their arms for their daughter. As she reached them, she had tears running down her face, tears she had been bottling up for longer than she could remember. They wrapped their arms around her, holding her as she clung to them. She finally met her parents.

***Break***

"Well, it looks like the chakras have evened out," Kakashi said, his sharingan eye open and observing the energies swirling around the girl. Her breathing had normalized after that sporadic burst early in her trance. After what he could only describe as fear washing over her, she was then shrouded by something better, something... happier. That is until this most recent turn. When she'd been in a state of fear, the Kyubi's red chakra was swarming around her, as if trying to protect the girl from harm. When her mood shifted to happiness, her own blue chakra took over, lighting the room up in a warm glow. Now, he couldn't really describe it, her chakra and aura mixed together, emotions of relief, happiness, and exhaustion filled the room. He could also see tears forming in her eyes.

Ruby was concerned at all the different energies coming off of her sister, the first one frightened her, like a bad dream taking form. The second gave her a feeling of happiness, not like 'Mom just baked us cookies' happiness, something... better, like meeting a new friend kind of happiness. Now though, now it was like... the only way she could describe it to herself is the feeling she got when their mother came home from missions. That sense of completion, having their family together again.

The older shinobi in the room knew exactly what Yang was experiencing, Hiruzen and Jiraiya had seen her experiences first hand; Tsunade had read the reports after she'd returned, there were so many people she wanted to personally place in the hospital for their actions against such a small, orphan, child.

Before Yang had arrived to open her scroll, Hiruzen had informed Taiyang and Ruby about Yang's birth parents, and why it had been so important for her to wait to learn the truth. Learning that his daughter, and her sister, was not only the Jinchuriki for the Kyubi, but the only child of Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, and the former Kyubi Jinchuriki Kushina Uzumaki, made the situation much more clear. Minato had earned himself many enemies during the Third Shinobi War, so many infact that he could not publicly marry his wife. Kushina was not allowed to take her husband's name for her own safety.

Ruby couldn't understand what it must have been like, to love someone, to love them so much that you marry them, and bear their child, but unable to admit publically to being their wife and mother of their child. From what she heard, Minato Namikaze was a hero for Konoha, and yet even he had enemies within the village he fought to protect. She knew of the threat of the Grimm, and even the White Fang, but neither compaired to what she heard about the Elemental Nations of the Shinobi. Instead of abandoning the people here, Ruby wanted to help them, hopefully the whole world could one day know peace.

***Break***

"My father is Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage; and my mother is Kushina Uzumaki, the previous Kyubi Jinchuriki... Well that all makes sense now," Yang summarized; she had read up on Konoha's history, and knew what had been recorded for Konoha's Yellow Flash. She understood why she couldn't know, until now, who her parents were, but that didn't mean she had to like it. At least if she'd known, she would have had something to be proud of, something to let her know she wasn't just abandoned by parents who didn't want her.

Her tears had stopped, and she was sitting with her birth parents, telling them stories about the family that had adopted her, bringing up images to show them. She showed them Taiyang, Summer, and Ruby, her adopted family, the ones that saved her from the darkness that'd been building inside her. She showed them all of the friends she'd made, both in Konoha and in Vale. Both Minato and Kushina were smiling at the joy in their daughter's eyes as she recounted her life since she became Yang.

"Yang Xiao Long huh, it's a good name," Minato said, looking his daughter up and down, admiring the strong, beautiful woman she'd become; it was so long ago that she was the little baby he got to hold for too little time.

"It's a beautiful name, and it fits you perfectly," Kushina added, happy to see her baby had inherited not only her eyes, but her personality as well. Well she got Minato's hair, and his resolve, two things she loved about her husband.

Yang noticed that both Minato and Kushina were starting to slowly fade, starting from their feet. Her parents just smiled, "It's ok Yang, we knew we wouldn't have much time, but we were glad to be able to spend any time at all with you," Minato said, hugging his daughter one last time.

"Don't ever change, my sweet baby girl," Kushina started, as tears started to form in her eyes. "Remember, that true strength comes from protecting those precious to you," she finished, looking into her daughter's tear filled eyes. The two women embraced once more, the chakra they had left for this meeting was fading quicker and quicker.

"We have always been, and always will be proud of you, no matter what," They said together as the last of the energy faded, leaving Yang alone in the large room with the Kyubi as her only companion. The two regarded each other simply before Yang focused her chakra to bring herself back to the outside world.

***Break***

Violet eyes opened slowly to see the others in the room sitting around talking, only Kakashi was still focused on her; as their eyes made contact, he smiled his trademark eye-smile. "Welcome back," his words alerted everyone else in the room who came over to the blonde girl who was raising into a seated position

Like a blur of red, Ruby tackled into her older sister, hugging her tightly, Yang smiling softly, returned the hug. Yang stood as the younger girl released her, turning to smile at her dad, continuing on to face Tsunade, Hiruzen, and Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya, my father wanted me to thank you and Kakashi for keeping me safe all these years," she started with a smile, walking over to hug her Godfather. "And my mother..." she let the words sink in for a moment before acting. "She wanted me to give you this," she continued, as she kneed the older man in the groin. "She said it was for you being a pervert, I wonder whatever she could have meant by that," she finished, turning to smile at Tsunade, who by now was cracking her knuckles in a way that let Jiraiya know he was in for far more pain... if he didn't run that is.

In a puff of smoke, the Toad Sage vanished from the room with a horrified look on his face, the men in the room completely understanding why; Tsunade was pretty scary, especially when she was pissed off at a pervert.

"Well, Tsunade-sama," Yang began, surprising everyone in the room at the formality she never used. "You ready for that rematch?" she asked, with a confidant smirk on her face.

"Heh, bring it on brat," Tsunade answered. The rest in the room could only wonder how much damage the two would cause this time.

***Break***

Out at a training ground, in the middle of the forest, far enough away from the village so they wouldn't cause any collateral damage, stood two blondes. One had long, wild hair, she loved her hair, violet eyes and golden bracelets that she didn't have the last time. The other had her hair in two pig tails, and amber eyes; her appearance hid her age, she appeared in her early thirties, but was really in her early fifties.

The two stood several yards apart, both smiling at each other. Yang rotated her arms while flicking her wrists, triggering the transformation of her Ember Celica from a pair of bracelets into a pair of shotgun gauntlets; the action caused Tsunade to raise her eyebrow quizzically. "So, I see you've gotten new toys" Tsunade taunted. "Don't think they'll change the outcome of the match," she finished, not bothering to uncross her arms.

Yang smirked as she readied herself by getting into her fighting stance, "We'll see about that." Yang felt more than ready for this match; she couldn't really explain it but she felt... lighter somehow; like a weight she didn't know she'd been carrying and been lifted.

"When I drop my hand, the match will begin," Kakashi called out, neither blonde turning to look at the grey haired shinobi. Sighing to himself, he lifted his hand up over his head, pausing for a moment before bringing it down in a chopping motion. "Begin!"

With the start of the match called, Yang charged her opponent. Tsunade smirked as she lifted her foot, slamming it down to crater the earth as she jumped into the air. Yang grinned, that was what she was expecting to happen; she crouched down as the expanding hole approached her, firing her weapons down while jumping to give her both a boost in her jump, and in speed as she flew at the older woman. This act caught the Fifth Hokage off-guard as the younger blonde rocketed towards her. Drawing her fist back, Yang's weapon expelled the discharged dust round, chambering the next, and as she reached the older woman, shot a punch straight for her midsection.

Tsunade was expecting the punch, and made to block the blow, but what she hadn't expected was the explosive force that accompanied it. The impact sent her flying backwards while her arms stung from the blast. As she touched down on the ground once more, she looked up to see Yang still in the air.

With her target now grounded, for the moment, Yang threw punches at the older woman, sending off round after round of burn dust projectiles. Tsunade dodged the explosive shots, moving towards where the younger girl was going to land, at least until she fired those gauntlets again, changing her direction. This time it was the Hokage's turn to charge her opponent, rearing her fist back just as the brat landed, ready to punch her a few miles into the forest.

As her feet touched dirt, Yang raised her arms up to block the incoming fist, surprising the older woman when she stopped the blow dead in its tracks. Looking up, her now red eyes shimmered with confidence at the amber eyes of the Hokage. With her hair glowing, as if on fire, Yang pushed back against Tsunade's fist, shocking the woman again as she was thrown backwards by the explosion of power.

***Break***

The battle carried on like this for quite a while, neither fighter really gaining an advantage... well, Tsunade wasn't really fighting at her best, while Yang was using every trick she had. Tsunade was surprised to realize she was breathing heavy, she was even sweating from the battle so far. Yang had had periods of exhaustion and seemingly being revitalized, but even her stamina was starting to run out. The two fighters had torn up the training ground, craters and boulders littered the area, trees blown apart, or even uprooted entirely.

Tsunade knew she had to end the fight soon, the sun was starting to set. 'Sorry brat,' she thought to herself as she focused her chakra into one last attack. Stomping the ground, up popped a large boulder that she sent flying at Yang with a kick. Yang destroyed it with a punch only to see Tsunade right behind it. She couldn't react in time before Tsunade reached forward and flicked her forehead, sending the young blonde flying off to be caught by Kakashi.

As the man brought Yang back over to the sidelines, Tsunade appeared next to him, running a quick scan to make sure there were no serious injuries. Smiling when she found none, she pressed a small amount of chakra into her forehead, waking the girl up, and reducing the headache she likely had.

Yang woke up to find that she'd lost the match, she'd been expecting to, honestly, but Tsunade had said how impressed she was with how Yang had improved. That brought a smile to her face as she slowly stood up.

The group made their way back to the village, tomorrow they would be heading back to Patch, and Yang still had homework to finish.


	6. Chapter 6

Yang sat on her bed, watching cartoons while she brushed her hair. This was a ritual she'd been doing for years, all the way back to when Summer would brush her hair, while she watched cartoons. Her adopted mother would always tell her how beautiful her hair was, and how beautiful she was. The feeling of love that came from the attention always brought a smile to her face; Summer Rose had truly loved her like she was her own daughter. Summer had spent a great deal of time trying to find the hair style that fit Yang the best, before realizing that the loose and wild look of just letting her hair down truly did fit her the best. Her hair never just fell straight down, it always moved and flowed like a dancing flame when she moved; unable to be restrained.

It had been almost a year since Yang and Ruby had started school at Beacon. Their team was the best, not one of the best, the best; and Yang would happily supply a fist to the gut of anyone who said otherwise. Their team consisted of Yang herself, Ruby, Weiss Schnee, and Blake Belledonna; four beautiful and deadly women that could kick the ass of anyone, or anything, that got in their way. There were some hiccups at the start; Ruby and Weiss had clashing personalities, Ruby being energetic and somewhat carefree, while not being overly confident… actually Ruby was rather awkward, still in the later stages of puberty. Weiss on the other hand was very confident, to the point of being arrogant, she was skilled yes, but she let that get in the way of being a teammate. Blake, her teammate, was awesome. She was this super cool, but quiet, ninja girl with the cutest pair of cat ears you could find… but that was a secret because Blakey didn't want everyone knowing that she's a Faunus. And last but not least, there was Yang, the super badass blonde with a mean right hook that could make giant robots and giant demon bears tremble in their shoes… not that giant robots, or giant demon bears wore shoes…

They had just gotten back from their first mission outside the Kingdom, the mission to hunt down and root out the White Fang organization operating out of South-East Vale. The mission had ended up with a train crashing up into the city, with dozens of Grimm following. They had fought them off long enough for as many civilians to evacuate as possible. And just when things started to look bad, both teams JNPR and CFVY showed up and started kicking ass as well. Sun and Neptune showed up, but they didn't actually do anything but gawk when Atlas's military showed up.

As celebration for their mission being rated as a success, Yang proposed a girls night out, where they could go to a club and dance for a while. It would also be a great opportunity for Weiss and Blake to meet some of Yang's friends from Konoha, namely Ino, Sakura, and Tenten who were due to arrive in an hour or two. Of course the invitation had been extended to Nora and Pyrrha of Team JNPR as well. Yang's plan was to roll up into the club with a small army of beautiful girls ready to dance the night away, getting plenty of stares from cute guys, who knows, maybe a few would have the courage to ask one of them to dance.

Ruby tried to back out of the invitation saying she didn't know how to dance, but that was refused under the idea of "We can teach you." But finally Ruby came up with the perfect excuse; she was too young to be in the club anyway. Weiss, being of rich, snooty upbringing also declined, she didn't think it would be appropriate for someone of her lineage to go to some place as "hormone driven" as a dance club. At least Blake was with her on the idea; Nora was excited to go… almost too excited; Pyrrha was hesitant at first, until Yang, Blake, and Nora convinced her that it'd be a good way to burn off some of the stress from the past couple months. Who knows, it might even help her confidence in trying to tell Jaune about her feelings; personally, Yang thought she should just shove the two of them into a closet and lock them in until something happened. It'd probably be good for the both of them.

After she finished brushing her hair, Yang moved to her closet, pulling out the dress that she had kept a secret from her father; it was a burnt orange dress, semi form fitting, with the top tying behind her neck. It showed off as much cleavage as her normal outfit, but showed off far more of her back. The dress came down to her upper thigh and was sleeveless. On her ears she had simple, amethyst stud earrings; her necklace was a gold chain with a heart-shaped amethyst pendant, both of which she'd gotten for her sixteenth birthday. Plain, thin gold bracelets adorned her wrists, it wouldn't be appropriate to bring her weapons to a club... again. Her shoes were the same color as her dress, with a three inch heel. Looking herself over in the mirror one last time, she smiled before grabbing the purse that held her Scroll, Kingdom technology assigned to students, her identification, and some cash for the night, before heading out to meet the rest of her friends.

Blake was wearing a tank top that went from black at the bottom to dark purple at the top, with a black and dark purple striped miniskirt. She wore her purple-to-black leggings that she normally wore, and black shoes with three inch heels. She was sitting on the sofa in the area with the other girls, reading her book like always, her bow sitting in its usual place.

Nora was wearing a pink and orange go-go dress with a heart shape cut out just over her cleavage; her shoes were knee-high boots, pink, with a two inch heal and one inch platform. She was nearly bouncing from excitement, causing everyone else in the room to look at her with concern.

Pyrrha's outfit consisted of a low-cut, one shoulder dress; they wouldn't let her wear the same one she wore to the dance last week. It was a dark crimson, a shade darker than her hair. The dress hugged her body almost like a second skin, and ended at the top of her thighs, like Yang's. Because of her height, she elected to go with two inch heels, dark red like her dress. She ditched her crown thing in favor of more normal jewelry like bright green emerald earrings that matched her eyes. She was chatting with Ino and Sakura about the differences between the shinobi villages and the kingdoms. Pyrrha kept her hair in the same pony tail she normally wore it in.

Ino had on a short, off the shoulder, light purple dress with matching heels. She and Sakura both forwent jewelry simply because they weren't used to wearing them. Her hair was down from the ponytail she usually kept it in, falling straight down her back.

Sakura wore a red and pink version of Ino's dress, they had gone shopping together like usual, so their outfits were very similar. Sakura however chose a dark red choker to wear around her neck.

Tenten was the most conservative of the group, electing for a short sleeved dress that went down to her mid-thigh. The dress was dark green with red, yellow, and orange designs flowing over the dress. Her shoes were black three inch heels. Her hair was let down from her usual buns, and curled at the ends.

With the group all set and ready to go, they all loaded into the limousine they had rented to take them to the club. The drive was uneventful and the girls spent the time talking about things like what it was like growing up in Konoha, or Vale, or Mistral or wherever, the types of missions they did, the boys they knew, and if they were cute or not.

The limousine pulled up outside of a large building that had loud music seeping through the walls. Yang looked at the place with familiarity, something that Blake and Sakura caught, raising their eyebrows at the violet eyed girl. "What?" Yang asked smiling with a hint of nervousness. "Let's just say that I know the owner," she finished before any questions could be asked, exiting the vehicle before walking up to the driver's window. As she verified contact information with the driver, the other girls looked between themselves before shrugging and getting out as well. The seven girls all started up the steps to the front door of the club, the bouncer looking them over, certainly appreciating the sight, before stepping aside to let them into the club. As they got inside the door, Yang called out "Yeah, let's kick this night off with a Yang!" while thrusting her fist into the air, Ino and Nora matching her enthusiasm and movement; Blake, Sakura, Pyrrha and Tenten all covered their faces with their hands, shaking their heads at the bad pun.

***Break***

A tall, black-haired man was sitting at the bar of the club. He wore black slacks, black shoes, a white button-up shirt and red tie, and black gloves. It was his club, and Junior was scanning the club, looking for anyone causing a disturbance. Thankfully, since his arrest, Roman Torchwhick wasn't able to cause him any more problems. As he looked towards the entrance, he saw something that he, at the moment, really wished he wasn't seeing. He saw her again, the girl with the long flowing blonde hair and violet eyes; the girl who had torn his club up several months ago. She wasn't wearing her usual outfit though, this time she was dressed to party, or so he thought. She also had six other, beautiful, girls with her, all about the same age.

Slowly he made his way over to the group of girls that were making their way through the crowd around the dance floor. Coming up behind her, he spoke loud enough to be heard, but only by her. "What are you doing here Blondie?" he asked, tensing for a punch he was sure was about to come.

"Oh, hi Junior!" she said, turning to smile at the older man. "My friends and I are just here to have some fun, that's all," she finished, giving him a flirty grin, just like she had before.

"What kind of fun?" he asked, already making plans to evacuate the building.

"Oh, we just came to drink and dance," she answered no hint of violence in her voice. "Who knows, maybe I'll give you that kiss I promised you," she said with a wink, walking around him to join the other girls at the bar.

As she joined her friends, Ino handed Yang a shot glass filled with clear liquid, and together they all downed their first drink of the night. Being less experienced with liquor, Pyrrha and Tenten coughed a bit as the liquid burned their throats. With that drose of liquid courage in their systems, the girls moved onto the dance floor, feeling the beat of the music move through and fill them. Soon they were all dancing, some by themselves, some together, and a few with random people they didn't know.

The dance floor of a night club is an interesting place; it's a place filled with energy and sexual tension, a place where complete strangers can share a level of intimacy that you would never see in public; a place filled with the sensual motions of lovers.

Yang was currently dancing with a guy, he was pretty cute she had to admit, he was wearing some outfit designed to show off his… physical prowess. His hands were strong as they held onto her hips from behind, her rear rubbing against his front; her hands reaching up to wrap around the back of his neck. His head leaned down, nose sniffing her perfume as he placed a soft kiss on her neck. Looking ahead, she caught the sight of Ino who as currently dancing with two guys at once, their bodies surrounding hers as she ground against them. Blake and Pyrrha were off to the side, neither one particularly comfortable with the situation, though for different reasons. Blake wasn't too comfortable around so many humans, even if they didn't know she was a faunus; Pyrrha had been too removed from the public to really have any experience with this sort of situation. Smirking, Yang turned around, facing her dance partner before reaching up to place a kiss on his cheek. Walking away with a sway to her hips, she traversed the distance to her two wall-flower friends. Meeting up with the pair, she grabbed their arms, dragging them back to the bar where they easily got another round of drinks before heading back to the floor.

With Blake on one side, and Pyrrha on the other, Yang started dancing again, grinding against her friends and encouraging them to let loose and have fun. The black haired girl looked at the red head, both sharing a thought before they resigned and gave the blonde what she wanted. The three girls were soon dancing together, very quickly drawing plenty of attention to them. Who wouldn't want to see a beautiful blonde, brunette, and redhead all dancing and grinding together to dance music?

Nora and Sakura were off to the side, trying, and failing, to chat with some guys who were hitting on them, fresh drinks being brought to them every so often. The two were putting on all the charm they could muster; soon they were surrounded by guys who were all interested in the duo. Trying to have a bit more fun, Sakura reached her free hand over and took hold of Nora's, earning a smirk from the orange-haired girl. This act did not go unnoticed by the group of men surrounding them, and much to their delight, the two girls looked at each other, before leaning in for a nice, passionate kiss.

Tenten was dancing with a guy she found to be cute, not as good looking as Neji, but he was still cute. Ino had moved over near to her, the two guys having swapped out for another two, both with their hands on the lithe young girl between them.

With their inhibitions lowered, Pyrrha found herself dancing with Yang; the two intimately close as the music surged through them. Blake was not too far away, dancing with a guy with black hair. The blonde was behind the redhead, holding onto her hips as Pyrrha rubbed her butt against Yang's crotch. They too were getting plenty of attention as Pyrrha turned to face the fiery blonde, pulling her in for a kiss. Yang grinned as she returned the kiss, pulling the redhead's body against hers.

***Break***

After a few cycles of going to the bar for drinks, and dancing, and sitting down to chat, the girls were soon getting tired. One last song came over the system at the behest of the club owner. Hearing the slower song made Yang grin as she turned to find Junior; she had danced with him once or twice during the night, noticing a sizable bulge in his pants as her bottom rubbed against him. Seeing the taller man, Yang grabbed Blake by the hand, leading her across the floor until she knew that Junior was watching. The two girls danced together, slowly, holding each other rather close, intimately close. A few guys had tried to cut in, but they were refused. The alcohol Blake had consumed was leaving her feeling very good, there was a strange warmth in her chest that she couldn't describe as she looked into the violet eyes of her partner. Yang had only intended to tease Junior a little by holding a second beautiful girl close to her while looking him in the eyes. What she wasn't expecting was for Blake to take hold of her head, pulling the taller girl down for a soft, tender kiss; a kiss that quickly heated up as it built in passion. Yang's eyes closed as the intensity rose, feeling Blake's fingers wrap into her long hair, trying to pull her closer.

A tap on the shoulder brought them out of their daze. Ino and Sakura were looking at them with smirks on their faces. The rest of their friends were already gathering their things and heading to the door. "One sec, there's something I need to take care of real quick," Yang said as Blake smiled softly and headed for the door as well.

Yang walked over to the bar, where Junior was once again seated, trying to drown out thoughts of beautiful girls making out on his dance floor. A tap on his shoulder drew his attention, and he turned to see who had disrupted him. Her violet eyes held a hint of mischief as her face hovered a few inches from his. He didn't know what was going on at first, until he felt her soft lips press into his. He reached up to try and deepen the kiss, but he was pushed back as the blonde stood up and turned to join her friends outside the club.

Once outside, Yang pressed a button on her scroll, signaling the driver to come pick them up. Seeing the limousine pull up, the girls loaded up inside the vehicle; a few hopeful guys came out of the club, seeing the pack of beauties disappear into the black limousine. A few of them called to the girls, the window of the car rolling down to reveal several of the girls kissing each other passionately, much to the delight of the onlookers outside.

The limousine took off into the night, carrying the girls back to Beacon. As they traveled, Yang noticed Blake hanging onto her arm, resting her head on the blonde's shoulder. Luckily, or unluckily, for Yang, due to the Kyubi's chakra, she was largely immune to poisons, including alcohol, so despite drinking almost twice as much as the others, she was perfectly sober.

Most of the girls had fallen asleep by the time they got back to Beacon, only Yang and Tenten were still awake. As the limousine pulled to a stop, Ren and Jaune came out; Yang had called them ahead of time to help get their teammates back into their room. Ren carried Nora, and Jaune carried Pyrrha, the redhead subconsciously holding onto, and snuggling against Jaune, earning a bright blush from the boy. Nora was mumbling something about sexy dancing pancakes; Ren didn't even bother to ask. Yang picked up Blake and Ino, slinging them over her shoulder, while doing her best to retain their modesty, Tenten carried Sakura inside the building. When they reached Team RWBY's room, Ruby and Weiss were already asleep; Yang placed Blake onto her bed on the bottom bunk, carefully placing Ino up onto the top bunk. Tenten handed over Sakura for Yang to put up with Ino, the two girls cuddling together almost instantly. Yang picked Blake up, carrying her to the bathroom, stopping to pick up a pair of pajamas for both of them along the way. In the bathroom, the blonde changed both of them, being careful not to injure, or wake the sleeping cat-girl. Once finished, she carried the brunette back to bed, placing her gently under the covers.

Seeing as her own bed was occupied by Ino and Sakura, Yang slid into bed next to Blake. Hearing a yawn come from Tenten, Yang looked over that the girl before reaching out, taking her hand, and pulling her into bed with them. With less room on the bed, now that it had three people instead of just one, Yang wrapped her arms around Blake's body, pulling her sleeping body against her own. In her sleep, Blake rolled over, still in Yang's arms, and snuggled against the sweet smelling warmth of her partner.

***Break***

The next morning Yang and Blake were woken up to a flash of light and the sound of a camera going off. Both girls tried to hide away from the annoying light and fall back asleep in the comfortable warmth they were encased in. Violet and amber eyes opened briefly, taking note of each other before drifting back shut. At the realization of whose eyes those were, mere inches from own, Blake's shot wide open, noticing that she and Yang were both still wrapped in each other's arms. Tenten and the other kunoichi had woken up a little bit ago, content with allowing the blonde and brunette to sleep a little longer.

When Ruby woke up, she looked down to see her sister and their teammate lying, rather intimately, together in the same bed; this would be the perfect opportunity to get back at her sister for teasing her about her awkwardness towards boys. With that thought in mind, she crept down from her bed, grabbed her Scroll, and took a picture of the rather cute sight before her. Weiss had looked up to see what Ruby was doing when she too noticed Yang and Blake sleeping together in the same bed, gaining a mischievous smirk herself. Deciding to help her partner, Weiss snuck over, pulling the covers back from the sleeping pair so they could get a good picture of them. The flash had woken the pair up, Ruby and Weiss giggling when they saw the look on Blake's face, the faunus girl blushing at the situation. Yang however, just pulled Blake's retreating form back to her, the smile evident in her eyes; before Blake knew it, their lips connected again, her eyes drifting shut as the familiar taste and sensation washed over her again.

Seeing her sister kiss another girl like this was causing Ruby to blush deeply; sure she'd seen Yang kiss Ino, and Sakura, and even Tenten, but none of those times were like this. Those kisses had been fiery, meant to tease the people watching; this kiss however… this one was different… it was more intimate.

When their lips parted, both of their eyes opened slowly, amber searching violet for anything false. Finding none, Blake's lips curled into a soft smile as she curled up again against Yang's body.

This whole scene was touching and sweet and romantic, but they had a class to get ready for; so Weiss called out to her teammates, "Hey, we have class in twenty minutes, you guys need to get ready."

Twenty minutes? How long had they been asleep? Both girls wondered that as they got up from the bed, noticing that their friends had left a note stating they'd gone back to their hotel. Blake let Yang use the shower first, declining when the blonde offered to share, they didn't have time for anything that might happen; besides, she didn't know if she was ready for anything like that anyway.

Soon the four girls of Team RWBY were dressed and ready, leaving their room at the same time as Team JNPR. Yang made eye contact with Pyrrha, winking to the taller girl as she blushed at the thoughts of the previous night; blushing again when she saw Blake looking at her too. There were things they remembered about last night, there had certainly been some physical action going on between them, even some kissing, but that would stay between them. Jaune and Ren looked perplexed when Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake all walked down the hall together, holding onto each other's hips as they walked, chatting between themselves about last night's activities. Both boys looked towards Ruby and Weiss, hoping for an answer, but getting none as they didn't really know either.

A stray thought entered Jaune's mind, about the girls dancing together, and holding each other, and kissing, and… he had to shake his head, and wipe his nose before his thoughts went too far down that path. They had to get to their class that was starting in five minutes.


	7. Chapter 7

Two fighters were walking down opposite hallways, leaving the locker rooms that they had been preparing in. Each step took them closer to each other, closer to the upcoming sparing match that would pit two friends against each other. At one end, long, flowing blonde hair and violet eyes emerged from the access hallway into the sparing arena. At the other end, long red hair, tied up in a ponytail, and green eyes emerged from the other access hallway. Both combatants regarded each other with respect, they were good friends. They were the strongest fighters of their respective teams.

Yang Xiao Long flicked her wrists, activating her Ember Celica, the plates shifting around and moving to expand the weapons into their gauntlet forms; taking up her brawler stance.

Pyrrha Nikos grabbed her Milo and Akouo, her sword/spear/rifle and shield from her back, extending Milo into its spear form, taking up her ready stance with her shield in front and spear poking out over.

"This match is between Yang Xiao Long of team RWBY and Pyrrha Nikos of team JNPR," Professor Goodwitch called out from the sideline, announcing to the student audience who had fallen into a hushed silence. Even Professor Ozpin was here to bear witness to the match. Professors Port and Oobleck were also in attendance.

"Good luck Pyrrha," Yang called out to her friend and opponent.

"Good luck to you too Yang," Pyrrha responded with a smile. Truth be told, Pyrrha was looking forward to this match; she had fought team CRDL as revenge for them picking on Jaune, but this match would prove to be an interesting one.

"Let the match begin!" Glynda called out, stepping back while checking her Scroll to double check the readout was correctly displaying the aura levels of the two combatants.

With the call sounded, Yang charged forward, drawing her fist back to slam into Pyrrha's shield, driving the girl back a few feet. Pyrrha responded by shoving her shield forward, knocking the fist away trying to get inside Yang's guard. The redhead followed the move up with a swipe of her spear, only to be blocked by the blonde's left arm, the clash of their weapons ringing throughout the arena.

Aiming her right arm at the ground, Yang fired a blast at their feet, sending both of them backwards. Pyrrha recovered quickly, switching Milo to its rifle form, firing off a few quick shots while her opponent was still recovering.

Yang easily blocked each shot, deflecting the rounds with her gauntlets before returning the favor with her own blasts. Pyrrha blocked the first blast, leaping to dodge the second, and rolling out of the way of the third and fourth, choosing this opportunity to rush the blonde brawler. With her weapon now in its sword form, she quickly and repeatedly slashed at the shorter girl, pushing her on the defensive.

Yang did the unexpected, she caught Pyrrha's sword in her hand, sending her foot up towards the taller girl's head. The redhead's shield came up to block the kick, surprised when there was no power behind it. Suddenly Yang pulled on Milo, yanking Pyrrha off balance before releasing the weapon, and aiming her own at the redhead's stomach. The blow connected, sending Pyrrha flying backwards across the arena as the shot from Ember Celica sounded off. Dropping her foot back to the ground, Yang reassumed her stance while Pyrrha collected herself and readied herself again.

Both combatants shared a confidant smile, silently congratulating each other before the fight resumed.

After the brief halt in the match, both girls charged at each other again, fists flying and sword swinging, the clash of metal ringing over and over as neither fighter gained much ground for very long.

As Pyrrha advanced, blocking a punch with Akouo and a kick with Milo, she struck Yang in the stomach with the butt of her spear, causing the blonde to double over before smacking her in the face with a cross-slash, knocking her down to the ground.

Yang got back up, feeling the surge of power from her semblance, the cut across her cheek healed instantly. Smirking back at Pyrrha, her opponent saw that her eyes had changed; they were no longer violet, but red. Her hair seemed to be on fire as she charged forward, faster than before, dodging Pyrrha's gun fire with ease. As Yang aimed a powerful right hook at Pyrrha's head, the redhead activated her own semblance, adjusting the aim of the metal clad fist just enough to miss its mark. Feeling the shift in motion, Yang chose to follow it, aiming her left arm into a spinning backhand also aimed at the redhead's face, fiering her left gauntlet for added rotational speed.

Again Pyrrha brought her shield up just in time to block, but recoiled from the force of the blow, her feet skidding several feet before she stopped. At this point Pyrrha knew that she would tire long before Yang would, the girl just had too much stamina; so she had to be more overt with her semblance; she had to control the fight more directly. She knew Yang wouldn't forgive her if she didn't give the fight everything she had.

Pyrrha saw Yang charge her again, intent on winning the fight. Raising her hand, a black glow emanating; suddenly Yang found herself unable to move, her arms straight out at her sides. With a pushing motion, Pyrrha sent the blonde flying backwards into the wall, holding her there, watching as she struggled against the magnetic power of her semblance, her head hanging down in exhaustion

Looking down at her Scroll, Professor Goodwitch saw that Pyrrha was low on aura, but still had the advantage, but Yang was almost on empty. "And with that, Ms Nikos is…"

"Not yet…" Yang interrupted the Professor. Lifting her head up, Pyrrha noticed another change in the blonde's eyes; she had small, vertical slits for pupils. "I'm not done!" she cried out as red and blue energy swirled around her. Glynda looked down at her Scroll, irritated at being interrupted. She was shocked to find Yang's aura full again, 'That's not possible, her aura couldn't have regenerated that fast.'

With a grunt, Yang ripped her arms from the wall, looking Pyrrha straight in the eye as the redhead struggled to maintain control of the blonde's arms. The swirling energies surged again as Yang, with great effort, pulled her arms inward, aiming her fists at each other, slamming them together, dispelling Pyrrha's aura from them completely.

With her hold on Yang's weapons broken, Pyrrha was thrown off balance, looking up just in time to see the blonde move. The force of Yang's movement from the wall created a small crater in the wall as she rushed forward. Pyrrha could just barely raise her shield in time as Yang's fist came crashing into it, sending the redhead flying back against the far wall. With the last of her energy drained, Pyrrha fell to her knee, breathing heavily from the fight.

"Well then, with that upset, Yang Xiao Long is the winner," Professor Goodwitch called out, ending the match.

Panting heavily at the exertion, Yang walked over to Pyrrha, extending her hand down to the taller girl.

Looking up into the blonde's, once again, violet eyes, Pyrrha returned her smile and accepted the hand as Yang pulled her to her feet. "Good fight," they both said together, laughing softly as they both walked back to the locker rooms.

***Break***

After both combatants were looked over, and cleared, by the medical staff, they were allowed to rejoin their teammates.

"Yang! That was AWESOME!" Ruby called out, zooming down the hallway to her sister. Yang turned just in time to catch the blurred mass of black and red, stumbling slightly. Further up the hallway, Weiss and Blake were walking to meet up with her, both had proud smiles on their faces.

"Heh, thanks Sis," Yang replied, hugging her younger sister before setting her back down on the ground.

"Nice job Yang," Weiss started. "How did you manage to break free of her polarity?" she asked, so far as she knew, there was no way to break free of such a powerful control type semblance.

"Well, as you know, I'm originally from the Elemental Nations, from the village of Konoha," Yang began her explanation, as team JNPR came up to congratulate her. "When I was adopted by our Father," she continued, wrapping her arm around Ruby. "My Godfather had promised to come visit when he could, to help train me. Some of that training involved chakra manipulation," she said, pausing to let the information sink in.

"What's chakra?" Jaune asked.

"It's like aura, but where aura is the energy of the soul, chakra is the energy of the body," the blonde explained. "Apparently I can use my chakra to refill my aura when I need to, but I can also increase my strength with it," she finished.

Pyrrha looked like she had a question, but figured it was too personal for the group; she would ask it later, when she could get Yang alone.

***Break***

"Hey guys, I think I'm gonna take a short nap, I'll catch up later," Yang said, yawning as she stretched; her match with Pyrrha had been exhausting.

"Ok Yang, we'll see you later then," Ruby said while heading for the door, Weiss following suit. "Blake, are you coming?" their leader called back to the faunus girl.

"Actually, I think I'm going to hang out a read, I promise I won't interrupt Yang's nap," she answered; she had also noticed the change in Yang's eyes during the match, she had questions to ask her partner.

"Ok then, we're going shopping for supplies," Ruby said as the door to their room shut.

Yang had removed her jacket, hanging it up in her closet; her weapons were stored in her locker, as all students had to. Next she pulled off her scarf, tossing the sweat soaked cloth into her hamper along with her gloves. She pulled her boots off, placing them at the end of the bed, removing her socks as well and putting them in the hamper, enjoying the cool air on her feet. As she was pulling her half skirt off, there was a knock at the door. Blake, who had been watching her partner, quietly, the whole time, moved over to the door and opened it, only to find Pyrrha Nikos on the other side.

"Oh, hey Pyrrha, come on in," Yang said invitingly, far more comfortable now that she was wearing less.

Pyrrha entered the room, noticing Blake nod to her as she passed. Their brief eye contact let the redhead know that Blake had the same question to ask as she herself did. Pyrrha had dressed down into a more casual outfit, consisting of shorts and a loose fitting shirt.

"So, I take it you both want to know, don't you?" Yang asked, looking from Blake to Pyrrha, both seemed somewhat shocked that the blonde had figured it out so quickly. Both girls nodded as Yang sat down on Blake's bed, Pyrrha and Blake sitting on Weiss's bed.

With a heavy sigh, Yang leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "The day I was born, was the day I lost my parents," she began, noticing the shocked looks on their faces. "The day I was born… a monster attacked; the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, the Kyubi attacked Konoha. My father, was the leader of the village, he was the strongest. My mother, his wife, was the previous 'container' or Jinchuriki, of the Kyubi. While giving birth to me, the Kyubi broke free from the seal placed on my mother. My parents both fought together, and gave everything they had, to defeat the Kyubi, and seal it again… inside me," she said, having looked down while she remembered, looking up again to see their reactions. "The Kyubi is a creature made of chakra, and the seal my father designed, and used to contain it within me, syphons the Kyubi's chakra into my own chakra reserves. The seal also seems to convert my chakra into aura, boosting my reserves, or filling them up once depleted," the blonde continued, not seeing any judgement from her current companions. "For the first eight years of my life, I was alone, unloved, unwanted, and hated. That is, until I met Taiyang, Summer, and Ruby. They brought me into their family, and loved me, despite knowing of the monster inside me," she decided if she was going to tell them, she might as well tell them everything. "That day… they saved me, more than just adopting a lonely child. I don't know what I might have done, if I'd had to spend another night, alone on the streets, running from the angry people who hated me for something I didn't know about," she hung her head, admitting that, at such a young age, she'd considered killing herself to end the hateful stares and words. Looking back, she was ashamed of what she'd thought about doing. But then there was that family, the one from far away, the one that wanted to be her family, to take her away from all the hate, and the hurt, and the loneliness.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered the darkest point in her life, her hands clutched tightly in her lap. Suddenly, the bed shifted as both Blake, and Pyrrha sat beside her, both girls wrapping their arms around her; neither one judging her, neither one caring about the Kyubi. She told them about when she first met Ino and Sakura, how they were her first friends. She told them about Inu, her silent, hidden guardian who was, for a long time, the only one who seemed to care about her. She told them about the Kunoichi lessons she attended, after she had been adopted, while visiting Konoha.

"Wait, so they teach young girls how to seduce men?" Pyrrha asked, she couldn't believe that anyone would expect a girl that young to know about that sort of thing.

"It's a part of their culture," Yang started. "It's a place where you are considered an adult when you graduate from the shinobi academy; for most, that's at about twelve to thirteen years old," she continued, earning shocked looks from her friends. "Most people who take up the shinobi life style don't live much past twenty, if they even live that long," she finished sadly; she'd heard stories of people as young as thirteen giving their lives for their village. Even her parents were only in their early twenties when they sacrificed themselves.

"Wow…" even Blake could hardly believe it. It made her life as a faunus seem almost like a luxury in comparison.

"Y'know Blake, if you want, I could ask Kakashi if he could help you with your semblance," Yang offered, her tears dried, and her smile returned to her face.

"How?" the brunette asked, how could someone from such a different culture help her with something that was supposed to be unique to her?

"Kakashi knows a jutsu that looks pretty similar to your semblance," the blonde answered simply. "He's due out here for another visit soon. He should be here in a couple days," she finished, excited to see the scarecrow shinobi again. "Oh yeah, you two could also talk about your 'similar interest' in reading material," Yang said, with a suggestive tone to her voice; she'd found Blake's small collection of "Ninja's of Love" books that she tried to keep hidden. She also knew that Kakashi loved his "Icha Icha" books that Jiraiya wrote. Noticing the light blush on Blake's face at the mention of her 'reading preferences,' Yang laughed while Pyrrha raised her eyebrow in confusion.

"Both Blake and Kakashi like to read perverted love stories," Yang said to Pyrrha, earning a slap on the shoulder from her teammate.

As she mentioned Kakashi's name, the trio of girls heard a loud sneeze from outside the window. A moment later Yang poked her head outside to see the copycat shinobi standing against the wall reading his "Icha Icha" book. "Oh, hi Yang," the man said, smiling at the blonde girl. Soon Blake and Pyrrha poked their heads out as well, seeing the grey haired man standing comfortably on a ledge no wider than three inches; the same ledge Neptune had been almost cowering on about a month ago. "And hello to you two as well," Kakashi added, closing his book and slipping it into his pouch. "May I come inside?" he asked, seeing the girls back away from the window. With the path unobstructed, he easily slipped inside the room.

"So, I take it these are friends of yours Yang?" Kakashi asked, referring to the brunette and redhead standing next to her

"Yes, this is Blake Belladonna, and this is Pyrrha Nikos," the blonde responded, pointing to her teammate and her friend. "Blake, Pyrrha, this is Kakashi Hatake,"

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," he said to the two girls, performing his signature eye-smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well," Pyrrha replied, bowing slightly.

Blake eyed him consciously before repeating the sentiment.

"So, Kakashi, what brings you to Beacon this time?" Yang asked, as she walked to the closet to find a less revealing outfit to wear.

"Well, Professor Ozpin made a request to Tsunade-sama to send someone to act as a sort of 'exchage teacher'," he explained earning some questioning looks from the girls.

"Exchange teacher?" Blake and Pyrrha asked together.

"Basically it's someone to come to Beacon to teach the shinobi side of things, like the history of the elemental nations, basic chakra control, and to help out on missions," Yang explained, her father had told her of the idea last time she and Ruby were visiting him on Patch. "I just didn't really peg you to be the teacher type," the blonde stated as she walked back to the group wearing a pair of sweat pants.

"Well, I taught you a lot," Kakashi responded.

"You spent the time reading your perverted books while I fought your shadow clones," she said, accusingly.

"Perverted books? They are works of art," Kakashi defended.

"Yeah, the art of sex," Yang argued; Blake and Pyrrha, still sitting on the bed, looking back and forth at the two.

"Well, that's beside the point, due to how well I know both you and Ruby, I have been assigned to help your team on your next mission," Kakashi said, trying to redirect the conversation.

"Really!?" Yang asked, excited at getting to work alongside one of the strongest shinobi and fighters she knew.

"Yeah," he responded, smiling at the excitement on the girl's face.

"Wait, so you're taking Doctor Oobleck's place?" Blake said, speaking up for the first time in a while.

"Who?" Kakashi asked, turning to the faunus girl.

"He's our history teacher, he was also assigned to our team for our first mission," Pyrrha answered simply. "He's a little weird, but he's a good guy," she finished her explanation.

"Ah, not really taking his place, just coming along for the ride," Kakashi replied, turning back to Yang. "So, where's the rest of your team?" he asked.

"Ruby and Weiss went off to do some shopping for supplies," Yang said.

"Well, I should probably get back to my team, see you guys later," Pyrrha said, excusing herself with a wave as she left the room.

As the door clicked shut, Kakashi turned to look at the two remaining girls in the room. "So… who wants to get some training in while we have the time?"

Yang jumped up, excited at getting to train with Kakashi again.

"Shouldn't we wait for Ruby and Weiss to get back, so we can train as a team?" Blake asked, not wanting to leave the other two out.

"I have a shadow clone out looking for them right now actually," Kakashi said with a smile. "And when he finds them, he'll take him to the training area."

Yang had reentered her closet, coming out dressed in a lighter version of her normal outfit she used for work outs and training, Ember Celica once again adorning her wrists.

"YOSH! Your youth is burning brightly!" came a loud yell from across the hallway.

"What the fuck was that?" Yang asked as she looked at a sheepishly smiling Kakashi.

"Heh, I may have forgotten to mention that I wasn't the only one chosen for this job," he started. "It seems that your friends of team JNPR were assigned to Might Guy," he finished, rubbing the back of his head.

"You mean Bushy Brows Sr. is here?" Yang asked, receiving a weird look from Blake.

"Yep," the man answered.

"Screw this, I'm going out the window," Yang said, jumping from the room towards the tree outside.

Blake looked at Kakashi for a moment before following her partner, Kakashi joining them when he heard something about the 'Springtime of Youth' and declarations of physical prowess and what things they would be doing for their training.

***Break***

The sun was setting as team RWBY was panting heavily. Their training session with Kakashi was more than what most of the team had expected. Blake and Weiss didn't think much of the man who seemed uninterested and lazy about the training, only to find that, despite his appearance, he was very aware to his surroundings and much more capable than they gave him credit for. Ruby had been excited to see him, even more so when she heard the news about him joining their next mission.

Kakashi had decided to go with the 'Bell Test', attaching three small bells to his belt, and telling the girls that they needed to get one from him, and whoever got one would be allowed to eat. The one without a bell at the end had to forgo dinner.

Ruby, as confidant as ever, had tried to snatch one quickly with her speed semblance, only for Kakashi to grab her reaching hand, and spin her off in another direction.

Weiss had tried to use her glyphs to speed herself up, act as platforms to jump off of, even her gravity glyph to try and restrict his movements; none of them worked.

Blake tried a frontal assault, using her clones to try to distract the man while she snuck up from behind to get a bell; her attempt ended as well as Ruby's.

Yang was the last to try, and she was standing there with her arms crossed, and a smirk on her face, her eyes not breaking contact with Kakashi's.

"So, what do we do now?" Weiss asked, stepping up next to Yang, along with Blake and Ruby.

"We keep trying," Ruby said, about to dash off again, but stopped when Yang grabbed her hood. "Yang! What'd you do that?" she asked.

Keeping her voice low, she responded, "We need to work together. Ladybug, go right; Weiss, fire on left; I'll go center and draw his attention. Fight to kill. Give me five seconds then move," Yang said, taking charge, unfolding her arms as she walked towards Kakashi.

"Well, if you're going to start taking this seriously," he began, reaching his hand up to his headband. "I guess I will too," he finished, lifting the band up to reveal his sharingan eye, wondering why the blonde in front of him was smirking so confidently.

"Just what I was," Yang said, building her aura and chakra up quickly. "Waiting for!" she cried out as her form exploded with energy, appearing like a miniature sun to his sharingan. The ground under her feet cratered as she launched herself towards the momentarily stunned shinobi, throwing punches and kicks at him, trying to keep him on his toes.

A gunshot alerted him to the speeding red blur coming up on his left side, streaks of fire flying at him from his right. Kakashi substituted out with a log that moments later laid on the ground, charred and split in half. As he landed, Blake was on him, slashing repeatedly, blocked by the pair of kunai he had drawn. Kakashi had to vanish again as Ruby came back through, slicing through Blake's shadow clone and the spot he had been in just moments before.

Weiss cried out as she felt a hand grab her foot, in turn Yang punched the ground driving the shinobi out to avoid being crushed. As he fled, Yang jumped over to the Schnee heiress and carried her away from the fractured ground. In return, the white haired girl used her haste glyph to give the blond a boost in speed, before she shot off again to rejoin the fight.

Again, Yang clashed with Kakashi, punching and kicking enough to keep him on the defensive, noticing he kept his sharingan eye closed when he looked at her. "What's the matter Kakashi? Too bright for you?" she asked teasingly.

"I guess your beauty is just too radiant for me to handle," he answered, not missing a beat as he parried each blow from the younger girl. What he had missed was Ruby and Blake coming in for a cross cut. Even though he vanished at the last second, when he reappeared, he heard the sound of bells jingling as Yang released the aura and chakra she'd been maintaining this whole fight.

Collapsing to the ground, she smiled brightly at her teammates as Ruby and Blake held up the three bells, tossing one to Weiss. Ruby tried to give hers to Yang, but the blonde refused. Blake walked over, taking the seated girl's hand, and placed it on her bell, so all four were holding them.

Kakashi smiled, proud that they had passed the test; pulling his headband back down over his left eye, "Good job girls." All four members of team RWBY looked up with bright, but tired, smiles on their faces.

***Break***

As a reward, Kakashi had taken the four girls out to dinner, his treat. He spent the meal talking with Weiss about dust, and its different applications and effects; and Blake about her fighting style, her semblance, and her being a faunus. The fact that he'd picked up on it so quickly surprised the girl, but even more was that he didn't care about it; all he showed was a mild interest in the genetic 'side-effects' such as better vision at night, and heightened senses of smell and sound. It was understandable though, before her, he'd never really met a faunus, they simply didn't exist in the elemental nations. He did know that Tsunade would probably be interested in studying the faunus from a scientific standpoint. He also listened to Ruby's stories about Signal and Beacon; about how she got moved ahead two years and was able to go to school with her sister. The light and joy in her eyes as she told these stories brought a smile to the older man's face.

The good time couldn't last forever though; Team RWBY had a mission to prepare for.


	8. Chapter 8

The technology of the Kingdoms was amazing; it allowed for observation across vast distances. One could look up almost any piece of information they wanted to know, and the Inter-Kingdom Network of Information had so much delicious information to consume.

There are currently eight different, common, subspecies of Grimm; they seem to be attracted to, and feed off of, negative emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, and sadness. Most intriguing is that, upon death, their bodies seemed to evaporate. While interesting, this fact had been making the creatures very difficult to study, along with their inability to remain alive in captivity.

Amber eyes, with vertical slits surveyed the information closely; he had a plan for studying these mysterious creatures. If he could learn how to control these beasts, he could turn them to his own purposes. This was the reason why, in his current hideout, he had cages filled with civilians; humans and faunus that he had tortured; tortured for the purpose of generating those negative emotions that kept his captive Grimm alive. If he could unlock the secrets of their bodies, he could create a new breed of Grimm; a new breed that is smarter, faster, and more powerful than any the world had seen before.

Orochimaru let out a sinister laugh as he reviewed the results of his most recent experiments. He had yet to create a successful human-grimm hybrid, but he was getting close, and he was a very patient man. After all, he had been waiting almost five years to get his revenge on Konoha, and take the next step in his endeavor to take over the world.

***Break***

Six people set foot on the ground, the airship that had delivered them lifting off to return to Beacon. The four girls scanned their surroundings to make sure they wouldn't be ambushed by a pack of Grimm. Once assured of their safety, the group headed towards the village that had placed the call for help.

The mountain village was a quiet one, set into the side of a cliff to help provide as much protection as possible. It was a dust mining town, run by the Schnee Dust Company; most of the inhabitants were faunus, a fact that upset Blake. There were some human workers there, ones that needed a job, or just wanted a life simpler than what the big Kingdom cities could provide. In this town there was no discrimination, the humans and faunus living here all worked together for the benefit of the community. Children played together regardless of any extra ears, or horns, or tails. To Team RWBY, it was a pleasant sight to behold. It was an example of the peace that they hoped could one day envelope the world.

Sadly though, that peace was in jeopardy; several Grimm nests had sprouted up in unusual places. To make matters worse, there were rumors of a strange, pale-skinned man who was kidnapping villagers. The people who disappeared were never seen again. And the Grimm that showed up, were unlike anything even the Headmasters had seen before. Team RWBY had been sent out to investigate and report on their findings.

The small group walked into the village, drawing attention to themselves and their colorful outfits. Doctor Oobleck and Kakashi Hatake had been spending most of their time, during the flight, chatting and playing shogi; both men enjoyed the opportunity to test themselves against each other. They spoke mostly of the histories of their counties. Oobleck seemed very interested in the mythologies of the Sage of Six Paths, and the Tailed Beasts. Kakashi was also intrigued by the history and culture and traditions surrounding Huntsmen, Huntresses, and their weapons; he had read the report Tenten had written after her year studying at Signal with Yang.

Doctor Oobleck led the way to the village Inn, and obtained the keys to the two rooms their group would be staying in. Kakashi and Oobleck would be sharing a room together, and, as usual, the girls would be sharing a room.

As they entered their room, Team RWBY noticed that it was much smaller than their dorm room back at Beacon; there were only two beds in this room. Yang walked over to the bed on the right side of the room and dropped her travel pack at the foot of the bed, Blake walked over and placed hers next to her partner's. Ruby and Weiss copied the action at the bed on the left side of the room. Kakashi and Oobleck wanted to get some preliminary investigation done soon, so they didn't have much time to get settled in.

All four girls checked their weapons, the way they were trained to do; inspecting the firing action, load and reload mechanisms, and ammunition; they didn't want to be caught in bad spot because of poor maintenance practices.

***Break***

The group had been searching for hours; so far they had dismantled three of the ten Grimm nests they had been informed of by the village leader. The nests were fairly small, between two and three dozen Grimm each, with nothing bigger than a large beowolf or small ursa. Team RWBY made quick work of the Grimm with Kakashi and Oobleck doing more observation than actual fighting. Kakashi had stepped in once or twice to cover a blind spot in the girls' formation, correcting the error before stepping back out of the fights.

After three nests, the girls were growing tired, but they were still satisfied with their progress so far. At their current rate, their two week long mission would be completed early, giving them a few extra days off once they returned to Beacon.

With each batch killed, Oobleck and Kakashi would observe and note the Grimm compositions; it was unusual to find different species of Grimm working together, but here they were, ursa, beowolves, borbatusks, and even creeps working together; they even seemed to be forming fighting strategies. Normally the Grimm would just all rush in together and swing away, trying to kill the huntsmen, but here, the ursa would charge forward drawing attention, while the beowolves would circle for a flanking maneuver; the borbatusks and creeps were holding back, looking for prime opportunities to strike their distracted targets. Fortunately, for Weiss, a rolling borbatusk was no match for Kakashi's Rasengan.

With their most recent victory, the girls were afforded the chance to take a short break, snacking on ration bars and drinking bottles of water. It was still early afternoon, and Oobleck wanted to root out at least one more nest before they headed back to the village for the night. To help expedite this endeavor, Kakashi had created several shadow clones and sent them off to the areas they had marked on their map, to scout for the remaining Grimm.

The ground trembled slightly as Kakashi's visible eye widened, the memories from his clone filling his mind. "Girls, we've got company coming," he said, turning to face the trees to the North. Birds flew up into the air, evacuating their homes as the trees were knocked over; out from the tree line charged a goliath, a large, elephant Grimm, almost twenty feet fall with long curved tusks.

"How do we fight something like that?" Weiss asked, they had never dealt with a Grimm of that size before.

Ruby looked between her teammates, "Bumblebee, trip it up!" she called out, watching as Blake tossed Gambol Shroud to Yang, the two of them spreading the ribbon as they dashed forward. While they were working to wrap up the giant Grimm's legs, Ruby fired a succession of rounds from Crescent Rose at the beast's face, keeping its focus on her. Looking over to her partner, the two girls nodded; Ruby jumped back while Weiss stabbed the ground, flooding it with frost dust, creating a large patch of ice; Blake and Yang had finished loosely wrapping Blake's ribbon around the Goliath's legs, both girls pulling it tight, just as the beast reached the ice field.

Without the use of its legs, the large Grimm tripped, sliding on the ice as it slammed through several trees before it came to a stop. Temporarily stunned, the Goliath was unable to react as both Yang and Kakashi came dashing from the sides, one hand alight with golden fire, the other crackling with blue electricity. Both limbs impacted the beast's head at the same time, one piercing the creature's head, while the other impacted its neck, snapping the Grimm's spine instantly. It was a little overkill, but with something this big and dangerous, they wanted to be sure that it was dead.

"Good job girls, Kakashi," Doctor Oobleck said, taking a sip from his coffee. "I think it's high time we return to the village and call it a night," he finished, turning to walk off in the direction of the town serving as their base of operations.

Kakashi just smiled at the girls and he stuffed his hands in his pockets and followed the green haired Doctor, Team RWBY quickly following suit.

The trek to the village went by quickly and without incident, though Kakashi did notice that they were being watched from somewhere, and the gaze of their onlooker felt sinister, it felt… familiar.

***Break***

He had been watching the group since they had arrived in the village. He had observed as they dismantled the Grimm nests he had been experimenting on. His experiments had been focused around controlling the mindless beasts, and despite their failure to kill the interlopers, they had shown improved fighting tactics. He was certain that had it not been for the interference of Kakashi Hatake, at least one of the girls would have been injured, or possibly dead. He would have to step up his experiments; it was time to bring out stage two of his plans.

The hooded figure looked at the Scroll in his hands, reviewing the combat data he'd collected from the data chips implanted into the Grimm that had fought the huntresses. They had been designed to control the Grimm, and so far they had been a success. With his data collected, her turned, walking back into his laboratory, his work was too important to wait. 'That blonde girl, she seems… familiar,' he thought as the door closed behind him.

***Break***

The next morning was much like the previous, filled with hunting down Grimm nests, and exterminating the beasts there. It was simple at first, just small Grimm, but when they reached the fourth nest of the day, they noticed something different. In the middle of the nest was a type of Grimm they hadn't seen before. It was a humanoid Grimm, male if gender was a thing for the beasts; it was smaller than the beowolves surrounding it, and the bone-like armor covered the torso, legs and forearms of the creature, with spikes protruding out over the hands. What was perhaps the most shocking about the Grimm were the rabbit-like ears sticking out of its head. It seemed to communicate to the other Grimm without making a sound, they moved almost as if they were protecting it.

"Hmmmm, I've never seen a Grimm like that before," Doctor Oobleck said, his hand on his chin in contemplation.

"I don't have a good feeling about this," Kakashi said, taking a ready stance, as opposed to his usual relaxed pose. With a flick of his wrist, a kunai flew from his hand, aimed straight at the new Grimm's head. Without warning, a beowolf beside it swung its arm, deflecting the object harmlessly away. Acting on his gut instinct, Kakashi raised his headband, revealing his sharingan eye to take a closer look at the new creature before them. What he saw shocked him, "It… it has a chakra signature," he stated, none of the other Grimm had had chakra signatures before. He could see the chakra tendrils latched onto the Grimm surrounding the human… no, faunus Grimm. If he was right, those tendrils allowed shared thought and sight between the beasts, and the one in the center.

Yang looked over at the Copy Shinobi, "Chakra? How?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I have an idea on who's behind this," he replied, details could be explained later; right now they had a fight on their hands. Oobleck silently agreed as he switched his coffee thermos into his weapon.

***Break***

"Is the weapon ready?" a sultry, feminine voice asked.

"It is undergoing field testing as we speak," replied a snake-like voice.

"Perfect," she replied, her amber eyes glowing like candle flames in the dark room.

***Break***

"Nothing's working!" Blake cried out in frustration; all of their attacks had failed to kill even the beowolves. The normally mindless Grimm were actually dodging and blocking attacks; just when Ruby was about to cleave one of them in half, another would reach up and block her scythe with its claw. They had been fighting these things for thirty minutes so far and not one of the Grimm had died yet, Team RWBY was getting tired. Only Yang was still fighting, the rest were all backed off, trying to catch their breath.

Only Yang had managed to land any sort of attack out of the four girls, but she, unlike normal, wasn't going into the fight swinging away; she was letting them come to her, and countering their attacks. The problem was, they seemed to be learning. Where a quick block-punch combo would have knocked one down five minutes ago, now they would spin out of the way; it was getting frustrating. As she blocked two beowolves at once, a third she hadn't seen came up from behind her, its claw poised to take her head from her shoulders.

The beast was stopped in its tracks as a blue lightning covered hand jutted from its chest. With the sudden loss of one of their own, the two fighting Yang stumbled momentarily, giving the blonde enough time to smash their heads together. Kakashi looked up at the humanoid Grimm in the center of the nest, it had yet to move, his sharingan eye tracking the chakra tendrils to each beowolf in the pack. 'Hmmm, severing the chakra tendrils sends a feedback to the rest of them,' he thought as he noticed the other Grimm appeared to be in pain at the deaths of their 'brothers.'

Five beowolves remained, and then there was that other Grimm controlling them. There was no way that the wolves would allow them near the humanoid, unless…

"Distract them," Kakashi whispered to the girls, before backing away. The girls nodded to each other, if Kakashi wanted a distraction, he was going to get one.

Ruby spun her scythe around, planting the blade firmly into the ground, while Weiss spun the cylinder on her rapier; together they started flinging projectiles at the remaining Grimm, the beowolves dodging to avoid the fatal missiles heading their way. With the bombardment underway, Yang and Blake charged forward, trusting completely in their teammates' accuracy.

Yang taking point, charged straight at the faunus Grimm, rearing her arm back to punch it square in the face. Before she made contact, a beowolf tackled her away, its claw raking against her gauntlet. Right behind Yang was Blake, using her shadow semblance to avoid the same attack that her partner had baited out. Getting within striking distance of her target, she swung her Gambol Shroud, intending to decapitate it. Before she made contact, it raised its arm up, the bone protruding from its arm parrying her blade.

As Yang and the beowolf landed on the ground, Ruby's bullet ripped through its head, taking a sizable chunk out of it. The resulting feedback caused the faunus Grimm to stagger momentarily in its struggle against Blake. After it had recovered, it brought its other arm up, swinging towards the black haired girl only to slice through her shadow as she retreated.

Back up on her feet, Yang again charged the leader of the Grimm, ducking the swipe of another beowolf as Blake swung her sword to remove the attacking arm. With the shift in weight, the monster was unable to dodge Yang's punch, the blow powered by her shotgun blast to its chest, creating a large hole as it flew away. Now only two beowolves remained along with the faunus Grimm controlling them.

Finally it moved; enraged, it charged at Yang, the remained beowolves in flanking positions at its side. With its control narrowed to only two, the faunus Grimm was able to move, and its control over its remaining charges was greater. Yang and Blake had to retreat quickly as the flurry of coordinated attacks overwhelmed them. While Blake used her shadow to propel herself backwards, Yang received a harsh blow from one of the beowolves, as its claw raked across her chest. It wasn't a deep cut, but it was enough to send the blonde to the ground injured.

"Yang!" Blake cried out, firing her Gambol Shroud in its pistol form, trying to discourage the Grimm from attacking her partner, only to have to dodge backwards again as the wolves advanced on her while their leader knelt down over the fallen girl.

With its arm reared back to strike, ready to impale the blonde through the heart, it paused, as if savoring the sweet victory. That momentary pause proved to be its undoing as the prone form of Yang suddenly exploded in fiery energies. Gold, blue and red energy swirled around her body as she reclaimed her feet, the faunus Grimm taking a few steps back. The beowolves halted their attack on Blake as they turned to face the revitalized form of Yang. Looking up at the leader, her eyes were blood red, a vertical slit for pupils, the claw marks on her chest healing in front of the monster's eyes.

As one, the beowolves attacked, leaping at the blonde from behind, only to be blasted backwards by another surge of rage filled power; her eyes never left those of the faunus Grimm before her.

That surge of power had done something unexpected, it had severed the chakra tendrils connecting them to their leader; seeing the confusion on the wolves' faces, Ruby and Weiss quickly dispatched them with a single shot each.

***Break***

Kakashi hadn't wanted to leave the fight, he knew that the girls would be able to survive… at least he hoped that they would. He had pulled Oobleck off a little ways; he needed to prepare something in order to figure out just what they were fighting against. Oobleck, being a teacher, always kept writing supplies on him, so he produced several pieces of paper at the shinobi's request.

He had to work quickly, drawing the seals he needed onto the paper with his chakra infused ink; if he got even one part of the seals wrong… he didn't want to think of what could happen. Luckily for him, his sharingan guided his hand over the paper, the seal forming almost on its own. If what he suspected was true, he had to ensure that that creature didn't disappear so that its body could be studied by both Beacon scientists, and Konoha's medical forces.

Just as he finished the last of the seals, he heard Blake cry out, followed by the explosion of chakra he knew all too well. Yang had taken a hit, and her semblance, mixed with the Kyubi's chakra, was surging forth; she was entering her berserker state; he had to act quickly or the girl would destroy the faunus Grimm and everything in the area.

***Break***

With its concentration no longer divided, the faunus Grimm was putting up a challenging fight, even for a berserker Yang. But she had a huge advantage; her chakra would far outlast that of the Grimm. With the Kyubi supplying her with his chakra, she could fight continuously for days on end.

In her berserker state, Yang could see the chakra field around the faunus Grimm, it glowed a sickly purple, and the glow was fading slowly. As they fought, she noticed that the chakra… tasted familiar; not one she had ever encountered, but the Kyubi remembered it well. "Orochimaru," she growled out through her sharpened teeth. She would deal with the snake soon enough, but first she had to take care of this whelp that stood in her way.

The rest of her team could only watch as Yang fought alone, moving at a speed that only Ruby could match with her semblance. The two combatants seemed evenly matched, but how long that would stay true for was uncertain. Blake thought she heard Yang say something as she glanced towards the mountainside.

Seeing no way to keep the Grimm still long enough to punch, Yang did the only thing she could think of. She saw the large bone protruding from her opponent's arm aimed at her stomach, and she didn't move out of the way as it pierced her body. With the creature's arm less mobile, she grabbed it with one hand, driving her fist into the monster's shoulder, rending the limb from the body. After she discarded the amputated arm, her wound healed rapidly.

Ruby and Blake almost had heart attacks when they saw the bone sticking out of Yang's back, not knowing that it was a part of her plan, or that it wouldn't kill her. They sighed when they saw the hole close up after she'd removed the claw-thing from her abdomen.

Just then, Kakashi reappeared behind the faunus Grimm, his hand alight with blue lightning once again as it punched through the creature's chest. Removing his hand, he quickly attached the series of seals he'd made onto the Grimm's body, preventing it from dissipating. Finally, he knelt down, unrolling a storage scroll, placing the amputated arm and body onto the paper, applying chakra and making them disappear in a small cloud of smoke.

Looking up from his work, he gazed into Yang's eyes; they were focused on the cliff face, she knew where Orochimaru was.

"Yang, not now, we have to report what we've found to Ozpin and Tsunade," he said quickly in a hushed whisper. "Orochimaru can wait a little longer," he gulped when her red eyes turned to him, the anger in them sending chills down his spine before they softened and returned to normal.

With the Kyubi's chakra released, the blonde collapsed, falling onto Kakashi's shoulder. Her team appeared at their side instantly, worried for the girl. "She'll be fine, she just needs to rest for a while," he said, handing the storage scroll off to Oobleck while he carried the blonde girl back to the village.

***Break***

Back at their hotel room, Blake sat at Yang's bedside, watching the blonde rest, 'When she wakes up, I am going to give her a piece of my mind for making me… us, I mean us, worry like that,' she thought. Ruby and Weiss stood at the doorway; they were worried too, but knew that Blake needed her time alone.

When Yang had woken up, it was nighttime; she felt an odd weight on her chest; not uncomfortable, but odd. Looking down her body, she saw a mound of black, with a very familiar black bow resting on top. Blake had fallen asleep, sitting in the bedside chair. Smiling softly, she reached over, pulling the sleeping girl onto the bed with her, wrapping her arms around her raven haired partner.

***Break***

While the girls were resting, Kakashi and Oobleck were in their room; they were talking about the mission so far. "So, if it is this 'Orochimaru' you speak of, what should be our next move?" the Doctor asked.

"Orochimaru is a very powerful, very hateful man," Kakashi began with a sigh. "If he was watching our battle today, then he is no doubt planning for the next encounter," he finished contemplating their next move. Only Yang had been able to fight that faunus Grimm thing, the others weren't helpless, but they would need to get stronger; unfortunately they didn't have the time. Both men wrote out a message, one by Kakashi for Konoha, and the other by Oobleck for Beacon, detailing their mission so far and the complications they had come across. The messages also informed of the storage scroll in his possession, and requesting Shikamaru head to Beacon as soon as possible to help strategize the next stage of the mission.

With the messages completed, the two men clicked send on their Scrolls; Kakashi's would have to travel back to Beacon, where the Mass Communications Tower would boost the signal of the message and forward it out to Konoha.

***Break***

The next morning saw Tsunade sitting at her desk looking at her data screen, one of the many implementations of Kingdom technology that had been brought over to the elemental nations. Konoha had opened trade agreements with the other major hidden villages, the other Kages jumping at the chance to add the new technology into their arsenals.

The face on her data screen was none other than Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy, with his assistant, Glynda Goodwitch behind him. The powerful blondes had regarded each other hesitantly at first, but quickly became friendly acquaintances; yet another thing for Jiraiya to worry about, another beautiful blonde in his life that could cause him serious bodily harm because she too hated perverts, yay. To her left, and a step behind her, was Shikamaru, Joinin select and expert tactician for Konoha; behind and to the right of her stood Jiraiya, the Toad Sage. The two leaders were discussing the findings of the joint mission they had going underway involving team RWBY, Doctor Oobleck, and Kakashi Hatake. Of particular note for this video conference was the appearance of the new type of Grimm they had encountered.

"What does this information mean to you, Lady Tsunade?" Ozpin asked, his hands folded in front of his mouth.

"It seems, provided Kakashi's assumption is correct, that this problem is bigger than we originally anticipated," Tsunade began. "If Orochimaru has moved his operations to the area surrounding Vale, then we need to know what he is up to," the blonde Hokage finished, word of Orochimaru surfacing again had not put her at ease.

"Will our current forces, deployed to the location, be enough to handle this situation?" Glynda asked, the concern for her students evident in her voice.

"Given what Kakashi said in his report, I doubt it," Jiraiya spoke up; no one knew Orochimaru's capabilities better than he did. "I volunteer to go and join them, but I advise sending additional forces from Beacon as well," the Toad Sage said, he could also investigate the body and send the report back to Ozpin and Tsunade. Both leaders nodded their approval of the idea.

"Well then, we shall have the second team ready for when you arrive," Ozpin said, taking a sip of his coffee before the call ended.

"Well then, you have all your stuff packed kid?" Jiraiya said, turning to Shikamaru.

"All ready to go, Jiraiya-sama," came the response, Shikamaru patting his storage scroll containing a weeks' worth of supplies and clothes.

"Good," the Toad Sage said with a smile, placing his hand on the younger shinobi's shoulder. Jiraiya focused his chakra, searching for the seal he had left outside of Beacon; a little trick he had picked up from his favorite student, one Minato Namikaze. With his target locked on, he surged his chakra, and the two were gone in a flash of light as they were whisked away to the far off city.

***Break***

Team JNPR were getting ready, they had received a priority call on their Scrolls telling them that they had an urgent meeting and to get to the Headmaster's office as quickly as possible. The call had interrupted their class, and they were excused once they showed Professor Port the notice they had received.

While they walked down the hallway to the elevator that would take them up to Ozpin's office, Nora was her normal, bubbly self, Ren his normal quiet self; honestly, who would ever assume that those two could be friends, let alone 'together' even if Nora kept denying that they were 'together, together.' Pyrrha was occupied with her thoughts about their sudden mission, wondering what it could be, and what the feeling of dread could be. Jaune was currently chatting away with Might Gai, their transfer instructor.

The… bizarre shinobi had taken a special liking to the blonde guy, as if he saw something familiar in him. Their time training with the green spandex wearing man had certainly been interesting as well as effective. In the short time they had spent training with him, all of their stamina's had improved greatly. Nora had taken to the training regimen with gusto, easily tackling the fitness portion while the rest, even Pyrrha had struggled at some point. But Gai had taken Jaune under his wing, so to speak, focusing on the boy's weak areas. Pyrrha did have to draw a hard line, however, when Gai had tried to get Jaune to wear one of his green spandex outfits. The cries of the "Flames of Youth" were bad enough, but there was no way she would allow anyone of their team to wear one of those horrendous things.

The elevator finally dinged as it reached the top floor, and the doors opened to Professor Ozpin's office. Team JNPR were greeted by the sight of a black haired teenaged boy, his hair tied up to look like a pineapple. He wore a green flak vest, a black shirt with a mesh undershirt, black pants and sandals. He was currently looking at a pile of what looked like bright red clothes and long silver hair that Professor Goodwitch was glaring at, her riding crop in her shaking hand, raised to strike down upon the man.

"Mr. Jiraiya, if you would kindly keep your hands and… comments to yourself, we could get this meeting underway, Team JNPR has arrived," said Professor Ozpin, amused at the antics of the 'Legendary Toad Sage.'

"Tch. Troublesome pervert," the shinobi said, his hands held together; Ren noticed that his shadow was connected to Professor Goodwitch's; it seemed to somehow be preventing her from further assaulting the man on the floor.

"They're here? AHA!" Jiraiya said as he popped up from his former prone position, much to the annoyance of the still paralyzed woman. He turned to look at Glynda, noticing her inability to move, a perverted smile growing on his face.

"Oi, Jiraiya-sama, if you don't behave, I'll possess your shadow instead," the younger shinobi said with his lazy tone of voice.

Jiraiya took a moment to ponder that situation, there's no way the young Nara would be able to hold him for very long… but would it be long enough? Deciding it was better not to risk it, the Toad Sage sighed, before assuming a more serious tone. Noticing the change in his elder, Shikamaru released his hold on Glynda, seeing her lower her arm before walking off with a huff.

Team JNPR was still trying to figure out what was going on when, from behind them, Gai walked up to Ozpin's desk and bowed respectfully. "Professor Ozpin, Team JNPR is reporting for mission assignment," he said as he stood back up.

"Good, I'm sorry to call you all out of class like this, but there is an urgent matter that requires your assistance," the Headmaster said, sipping his coffee. "A little while ago, we received an urgent report from Team RWBY, they have encountered something most unusual. They have come across a faunus Grimm, and Kakashi reported that it seemed to control the beowolves around it by way of a dark, purple chakra tendril invisible to the naked eye," he finished, seeing the shocked looks at the mention of a new type of Grimm, especially one so similar to themselves.

"How did he see it if it's invisible?" Jaune asked, confused that it had a color.

"Kakashi possesses something called a Sharingan, it is a special eye that can see what normal eyes cannot, such as chakra flowing through a person, animal, or area," Jiraiya interjected.

"The person believed to be behind this abomination, is a man called Orochimaru," Ozpin said, drawing attention back to him. "Your mission is to meet up with Team RWBY and assist them in this matter; Jiraiya and Shikamaru here will be accompanying you on this mission. You are dismissed," he said, turning to face his large window as the group of seven left his office, Team JNPR had to pack.

***Break***

Team JNPR, Might Gai, Jiraiya, and Shikamaru all met up at the Bullhead launch pad, their airship waiting for them. After they were all on board, the aircraft lifted off, rushing into the distance to meet up with their comrades.


	9. Chapter 9

Kakashi, Oobleck, Shikamaru, and Jiraiya all gathered around the faunus Grimm body that had been captured the day before. The Toad Sage was currently performing an autopsy on the creature, scanning it for any residual traces of the chakra Kakashi had reported about. He didn't find much, which he actually expected, his former teammate was very thorough; but what he did find was a series of small data chips.

"Those look like Atlas technology," Doctor Oobleck stated as he observed the small devices.

"I wouldn't bring your Scroll too close to them, for all we know, Orochimaru, or whoever he's working with, might have programmed them to infect other devices," Kakashi said, he didn't have too much experience with the snake Sannin, but he had heard, and read a lot on the man.

So far all they could tell was that a normal, live, male faunus, was somehow… corrupted to the point where they turned into a Grimm. But that still didn't explain the chakra it had used to control the beowolves around it. There was one thing that stood out, whoever this faunus used to be, had been tortured, a lot, before it turned into a Grimm.

***Break***

Eight teenagers were all collapsed on the ground, trying desperately to catch their breaths. The Green Beast of Konoha had decided to start the day off with a 'light run' followed by a 'mild workout'. What this meant for the Huntsmen and Huntresses in training was that they had to complete one hundred laps around the village, followed by calisthenics. Calisthenics included push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, squats, hand-stand push-ups, and several other exercises they didn't have names for, and they couldn't even count how many sets or repetitions they had to do. After all that, Gai wanted them to run wind sprints, without the aid of any semblances, for twenty minutes.

After all that, they were finally allowed to rest, all eight of them lying on their backs looking up at the sky. 'Huh, so this is why Shikamaru loves watching clouds, it's so… peaceful,' Yang thought as the white blobs drifted through the air far above them.

"I swear… that man… isn't… human…" Weiss complained, sprawled out on the grass alongside her teammates.

"I can't feel… my legs… or arms…" Ruby said, her eyes closed.

"Even… my shadow… hurts…" Blake said between gasps for air.

"Eh… it's not… that bad…" Yang replied, earning herself three exhausted glares.

"If I could… reach you… I would… hit you…" Weiss said.

Ruby and Blake shared the sentiment, both girls straining, momentarily, to reach the blonde before giving up.

Team JNPR wasn't fairing much better, they had more experience with Might Gai's training regimen, but they were still tired.

"Ok, it's time for round two!" Gai shouted a little too enthusiastically for the prone teenagers.

"That will have to wait until later Gai-sensei," Shikamaru interrupted, smirking at the sight before him. He had witnessed the aftermath of Might Gai's training sessions before, always fortunate to never have to participate in them. He moved between the two groups, handing out small, brown, edible balls. "These are Soldier pills, they'll help restore the energy you spent during your training," he said in response to Pyrrha's quizzical look.

"Ah, Shikamaru, have the others figured out the mystery behind that thing yet?" Gai responded.

"All we were able to confirm is that Orochimaru is behind it, and that he got his hands on technology from Atlas," the shadow user said with a sigh, his hands resting within his pockets.

"So, it is him then," Yang said, her tone serious, as she stood up, dusting herself off. She walked over to the tree where she had left her jacket and scarf, picking up the bottle of water she had there, taking a drink before picking up her clothes.

"Yes, it seems that purple chakra was some kind of technique he had been developing for years. Unfortunately, we don't know what it's supposed to do," Shikamaru stated, sitting under the tree while looking up at the clouds.

"Who is this Orochimaru?" Pyrrha asked, looking between the teenage shinobi and Yang.

"He's someone very bad," Yang said, looking out at the cliff face she had felt his chakra from the day before.

"He used to be a teammate of Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade," Shikamaru answered, really wishing he hadn't decided to quit smoking before this mission.

Just as everyone was collecting their things, Jiraiya, Kakashi and Oobleck appeared; it seemed that it was time to continue the mission.

"Ok, as you all already know, eight of the ten nests have been eradicated," Shikamaru began, kneeling to unroll a map of the surrounding area. The map had eight 'X' marks on it. "Team JNPR and Might Gai will head to the nest North-West of here, while Team RWBY and Kakashi Hatake head to the nest to the South-West," he explained, pointing out the locations on the map. "Jiraiya, Doctor Oobleck, and I will remain here, and coordinate both teams," he finished, checking his Scroll to make sure it showed the statuses of both teams.

"If you encounter any of those experimental Grimm, do not take them lightly," Jiraiya said, his arms folded.

"For the purposes of this mission, these Grimm will be referred to as abominations," Oobleck added.

"Right!" both teams sounded, Pyrrha and Yang meeting each other's gaze. The two smiled at each other before they turned and headed towards their targets.

***Break***

"How did your test go?" the sultry voice asked.

"It went pretty well; they managed to kill my pet, but I was able to gather quite a bit of valuable information," the Snake Sannin responded.

"Good," she replied simply.

"Let's see how they handle Phase Three," he said, pressing a button on his Scroll.

***Break***

Team JNPR had reached their nest; they took note of the Grimm composition. There were ten beowolves, four ursa, and two of the newly named abominations. Ren focused on the abominations in the middle of the nest, noticing the demonic feeling surrounding them. Looking towards his teammates, he nodded his head.

"Nora, create some chaos," Jaune started. "Pyrrha, you and I will move up, drawing their attention and keep them away from Nora. Ren, sneak up on one of the abominations and assassinate it," he finished, looking between each of his teammates, receiving nods of acknowledgement as each understood their part in the plan.

"I'll fight the other one," Gai said, getting his own nod from Jaune.

"Ok, go!" he called out, as his team set into motion.

Nora fired her grenade launcher, pelting the nest with orange and pink explosions. This drew the Grimm's attention as the first shot landed on a beowolf, killing it instantly; the rest of the Grimm scattered away from the explosions, turning to face the source.

Jaune and Pyrrha ran forward, shields in front blocking swipes before swinging their swords at the monsters.

Might Gai charged forward, landing a powerful kick into the neck of an ursa, snapping it instantly before the force threw the creature at another bowling it over. The Green Beast of Konoha became a blur of green as he kicked and punched his way towards his target, taking out several Grimm along the way.

Ren utilized his perfect control over his aura to essentially vanish from their sight like a ghost, slipping between the beowolf ranks with ease.

Jaune pushed forward while Pyrrha took a knee, switching her weapon into its rifle form, and took aim at the Grimm occupied with her team leader. Seeing an ursa about to claw Jaune's blind spot, she used her semblance to pull him backwards by his armor. Once the bear's swipe had missed, she returned her weapon to sword form, dashing forward and liberating the arm from the Grimm as Jaune turned to impale the beast's chest.

One by one the Grimm fell, and once their forces were cut down to a quarter, Nora ceased her bombardment and switched her weapon to hammer form, joining her teammates in the melee.

Finally reaching his target, Gai squared off against his target, settling himself into his fighting stance; his left foot in front, his body half turned, right arm behind his back, and left arm held out towards his enemy, hand open with his weight balanced more on his slightly bent right leg. His target, a human female Grimm, mimicked his pose, a move that intrigued the Konoha Jounin.

Another ursa fell under the power of Nora's hammer as Pyrrha forced the bear's defenses open, giving the orange haired girl a straight shot at its head.

With the battle focused away from him, Ren slipped behind his target; he knew his window to strike was limited. In order to assassinate his target, he would have to focus his aura into his hands, and release the energy into his target like a spike; the downside being that focusing that much aura would draw the abomination's attention.

Pyrrha, Jaune, and Nora had cleaned up the last of the Grimm, and turned to focus on the abomination, a female faunus Grimm with deer antlers, wielding twin, bone-like swords.

Gai and his target had traded a few test blows, each gaging the other. Smiling at his opponent, the Green Beast decided to end the fight quickly, spinning around to deliver a powerful kick, with his left foot, to the creature's head. The abomination ducked under the attack, moving forward to deliver an uppercut to his jaw. Gai continued his rotation, bringing his right leg up to crash against the abomination's head, sending the creature tumbling along the ground. Not letting up his assault, Gai rushed over, performing a front flip while aiming a heal strike at the creature's skull, intending to crush it quickly. The abomination rolled out of the way before sweeping its legs out, tripping up the jounin. The beast continued its rotation, spinning up into a standing position, while using that momentum to aim and deliver a fist to Gai's head. Before he landed on the group, Gai panted his hand and twisted his body, angling his foot upwards. With a thrust, he delivered a powerful kick to the abomination, sending it skyward. Gai leapt up after his enemy, appearing behind it as he wrapped his arms around the Grimm. Shifting his body weight, Gai sent the two into a rapid spin, aiming their heads at the ground. Their spinning forms impacted the ground together, with Gai leaping away at the last moment; the Grimm was left unmoving in a sizable crater.

Pyrrha and Jaune took point, both focusing on blocking and parrying one of the abomination's blades each. Normally Pyrrha would have taken the creature on herself, but the report from Team RWBY stated that these things were not to be taken lightly. The duo charged, shield first, into the Grimm, throwing it off balance before dodging back as Nora leapt over them, hammer poised to drive the abomination into the ground like a railroad spike. The creature dodged backwards, stopping just in front of Ren who had finished gathering his aura into his hands. As the Grimm came to a stop, it felt a spike of aura from behind, unable to turn when a pair of gloved hands grabbed hold of its head. Releasing the pent up aura, the abomination's head was crushed instantly. Ren leapt backwards, the entire team watching the now headless body as it collapsed to the ground; none lowering their guard until it started to dissipate. They all let out a collective sigh of relief as its body began to disappear.

Gai's target started to fade away as he looked on; most of its limbs, including its neck were bent at completely wrong angles. He turned to face Team JNPR, proud to see that their enemy had been felled as well.

With their objective complete, the group of five turned to head back to where Jiraiya, Shikamaru, and Oobleck were camped.

***Break***

Team RWBY had found their nest, the Grimm composed of two ursa majors, six beowolves, four creeps, a deathstalker, and three abominations.

"Speed Demon," Ruby called out, Yang stepping forward while Weiss charged up her haste glyph on the blonde. Once the speed boost was completed, the brawler shot forward, charging the ursa major on the right, unloading a shotgun punch to its gut, sending the large beast reeling backwards; as its partner turned to swipe at her, the girl dodged to the side, pressing with her attack on the large bear.

"Shock Rose," came the second call, Weiss summoning a shock dust glyph while Ruby fired through it, sending a lightning powered sniper round down range. While the ursa major on the left was distracted with her sister, Ruby's dust enhanced bullet pierced its thick skull, killing the beast instantly.

Kakashi leapt up into the air, his sharingan eye exposed as he quickly wove through several hand signs, sending forth three large fire balls to bombard the Grimm nest, killing all of the creeps on impact.

A shotgun upper cut lifted Yang's current target off the ground, its ascent cut short as she appeared above the creature, driving another shotgun punch into its chest, sending the beast flying towards the pack of beowolves. The smaller Grimm scattered as the bear impacted the ground; the large bear's chest having caved in from the blow.

"Ladybug," the third cry from the team leader sent Ruby and Blake forward, slicing up the displaced beowolves each fading away as their bodies were diced into Grimm cutlets.

As she landed on the ground, Yang was forced onto the defensive, the deathstalker swinging its pincers at the blonde huntress-in-training. The brawler was able to block the oversized scorpion's attacks with relative ease, having to dance away from the stinger when it lunged at her.

"Checkmate," the call had Weiss launching Blake at the death stalker, her rotation allowing her to cut the joint connecting the stinger to the tail. As the golden stinger started to fall, Blake set her feet against it, jumping off to force it downward onto the deathstalker's body.

"Iceflower," Weiss summoned a frost glyph, Ruby shooting through it, the shots impacting the deathstalker's pincers and encasing them in ice. Seeing the opportunity open up, Yang jumped up, driving her shotgun punch into the stinger, forcing it into the Grimm's head.

With all the other Grimm defeated, all that was left were the three abominations. The one on the left, a male cat faunus with two bone claws protruding from its wrists; the middle, a short female human with a scourge, a long whip with spikes along the length; the right, a large male human with an equally large club.

Kakashi crossed his fingers, summoning four shadow clones, the five of them charging at the abomination on the right.

Yang and Ruby fired several burn dust rounds at the abomination in the middle, they watched its movements as it dodged from side to side; it looked like it was dancing around the attacks.

Blake fired her Gambol Shroud in its pistol form at the left Grimm, Weiss matching the move by unleashing blasts of fire, ice, and lightning; they watched as it took the assault, any damage taken healing back quickly.

Kakashi and his clones bombarded the large abomination with a slew of elemental attacks, searching for any kind of weakness; the Grimm seemingly unaffected by his assault. With a swing of that massive club, two of Kakashi's clones were dispelled; he would need something much stronger to pierce its thick skin.

Yang made several attempts to close the gap between her and her target, but that damned whip kept her at bay; Ruby wasn't fairing much better, even with her semblance.

The faunus Grimm charged at the monochromatic pair, forcing them to dodge out of the way as it attacked with a ferocity unmatched by any Grimm they had encountered.

Yang looked over at Kakashi, nodding at the unspoken words. "Crossfire!" she called out, making a short hop as Ruby spun around, bringing her scythe under the blonde's feet. With a blast of her sniper scythe, Ruby spun the weapon faster, launching her sister at the abomination on the right, her fist reared back; as she got within reach, the blonde threw her fist out in a right cross, the shotgun blast knocking the large Grimm off balance. Kakashi took the opportunity to charge his Rasengan, slamming it into the creature's chest, watching as the attack exploded a hole in the abomination's torso.

With one down, Yang launched Kakashi at the middle enemy, the scarecrow shinobi substituting in rocks and logs to take the would-be fatal blows from the scourge. Suddenly, a fist shrouded in blue lightning erupted from the smaller Grimm's chest. To his surprise, the abomination moved away from him, the attack had gone right through its body as if it weren't there. Kakashi had to jump away as the scourge came back around, striking the place he stood a moment later. His sharingan caught the fluctuation in her chakra patterns, they had disappeared when he struck, like she had phased through his attack.

Seeing Blake and Weiss in trouble from the feral abomination, Yang charged the creature, blindsiding it and sending it tumbling away. After it came to a stop, the Grimm regained its footing, glaring at the new threat. "Help Ruby and Kakashi… this one is mine," she said to her teammates, squaring off against the cat faunus Grimm. Each swipe of its claws was easily blocked and parried by the blonde's gauntlets, she retaliated with punches; the creature took each of the attacks, regenerating the damage back.

The two girls joined their leader and Kakashi, waiting for their next move.

"Keep it occupied," Kakashi told Ruby and Blake, taking Weiss back a few feet, there was an idea he wanted to try out.

Blake advanced, using her shadow semblance to change her trajectory to evade the scourge as it slashed at her location; Ruby provided cover fire.

Yang had taken a few light scratches from the abomination she was fighting, nothing major, but it was still fuel for her semblance, her hair glowing and her eyes a deep burgundy. The two clashed again and again, neither one gaining much ground over the other, any damage inflicted was healed back. The Grimm made a swipe for her head, she dodged out of the way; suddenly she saw a lock of golden hair falling slowly towards the ground… no one touches her hair. Her vision washed over in red as her power exploded out from her body. Her opponent was unable to lay a finger on her now, but her punches and kicks came faster, and with more force, the abomination's healing factor barely keeping up with the wrath brought down upon it.

Kakashi and Weiss stood up, preparing to launch their attack. Ruby and Blake retreated from their assault, standing back as the copy shinobi threw a kunai forward, his hands together; with his chakra pulse, the flying dagger multiplied, raining down on the dancing Grimm. As the projectiles impacted around the abomination, they started to explode, kicking up dirt and debris. With the target obscured, Kakashi leapt up high, throwing another kunai at where his sharingan showed the Grimm to be. As the dagger passed through its body, the weapon exploded in a flurry of frost dust infused with Weiss's aura; when the smoke cleared the abomination was encased in ice. Weiss summoned a fire glyph; Ruby swung her scythe through it, adding the flaming aura to its blade. Dashing forward, Ruby cut the iced Grimm in half, killing it.

Despite her fury, Yang was unable to kill the faunus abomination; she was beating it sure, but she couldn't kill it. 'Vixen,' the Kyubi whispered in her ear. 'Aura disperses chakra, you need to hit that thing with an aura attack,' he finished. As she fought, she struggled to think of any form of aura attack she could use. Finally her mind settled on something she had seen Kakashi use several times. Unleashing a powerful punch, she knocked the abomination away from her, giving herself time to focus while it regenerated. Retracting the gauntlet on her right arm, she focused her aura there; she really wished she had Ren's level of control right now. As the golden flames danced over her hand, she focused on rotating them, spinning them into a ball. It took tremendous concentration, way more than she expected. The ball exploded in her hand, the blinding flash shocking the abomination back.

Now that two of the three abominations were dead, Kakashi was able to watch Yang's fight. He had seen her try to form what looked like a rasengan with her aura, but she lacked the control necessary. He ran over to the blonde, if she was willing to try something that risky in the middle of a fight, it was probably the only thing that would work. "Hold it back!" he shouted to the other members of Team RWBY, the three girls jumping in and keeping the creature's attention. Placing his hands over Yang's, he looked her in the eyes, "You supply the aura, I'll shape it," he said, getting a smile and a nod from the girl.

Pushing even more aura into her hand, she saw Kakashi's focus go to the golden flames. Soon they started to spin, faster and faster, growing denser with each rotation. "Now, wrap a thin layer around the ball, just enough to keep the shape," he told her, watching as she tried to picture what he wanted her to do. Soon the ball of spinning, golden, flaming aura was complete, and Kakashi removed his hands leaving it to Yang to deliver the blow.

Seeing that her sister was ready, Ruby ordered an ice attack to hold the abomination in place.

With her target locked down, Yang charged forward, pushing the attack ahead of her, just as she'd seen Kakashi do. When the ball impacted the Grimm, she pushed the ball away, letting go of it as she jumped backwards. What happened next, Yang would brag about for years; the ball of aura exploded in all its fiery golden glory; all traces of the Grimm were gone. With the fight over, Yang released her semblance, her hair and eyes returning to normal; she plopped down onto the ground, exhausted from the battle.

"Yang! That. Was. AWESOME!" Ruby cried as she landed in her sister's lap. The little red clad girl was firing off a million questions a minute, and all Yang could do was laugh and smile. Weiss walked over, grabbing her partner by the hood and dragged her off of the blonde, "Nice work Yang," the Schnee Heiress said, earning a smile from the brawler.

The five turned their heads to see Team JNPR, Gai, Jiraiya, Oobleck, and Shikamaru walk up to them.

"You guys finish off your nest too?" Yang said, looking up at Pyrrha, who responded with a tired smile and a nod. "Good, that means it's time to head back to the village right?" she asked, her response was a collection of nods and yawns.

***Break***

The group soon found themselves back at the inn; a good meal had helped to restore their spent aura reserves. Soon Team RWBY was getting ready for bed, Ruby and Weiss already asleep, the two laying back to back. Yang and Blake however had fallen asleep in each other's arms; Team JNPR was split between two rooms, Jaune, Ren, and Shikamaru in one, with Pyrrha and Nora in another; the hotel had rules against putting unmarried boys and girls in the same room together.

***Break***

Sinister, amber, eyes poured over the information gathered on the Scroll; his latest experiments had been defeated, but they had given him so much knowledge. Soon they would be ready to impliment phase four.

"Orochimaru," a deep, sultry voice floated through the dimly lit laboratory; arms wrapped around his neck as soft kisses were placed along his sharp jawline. "Come to bed, we can work on this in the morning," the raven haired woman said, her own amber eyes promising certain... activities. Cinder Fall's crimson silk clad form grasped the snake sannin's hand, leading him to the bed that they shared, discarding her robe to leave her porcelain skin bare for his eyes to feast upon. She laid back on the bed, pulling him ontop of her, their lips meeting in a passionate kiss.

***Break***

"Are you sure he said he wanted this one brought to him already dead?" the mint green haired girl asked, somewhat uncomfortable with their task at hand. Killing a traitor who was planning to abandon the White Fang's operations was one thing; killing a civilian whose only crime was choosing to live in a peaceful village outside the kingdom was another.

"That's what Cinder said," the silver haired boy responded, despite his cool, bored demeanor, was also having issues with their orders.

"He always wanted them alive," she started. "Why is this time different?" she asked, not expecting to get an answer from her partner.

Their target was in sight, a single man in his early twenties, walking down the street late at night. By the way he was staggering it was obvious he was on his way home from the bar many of the miners frequented after a long day's work. Emerald dropped down from the low roof that they were perched on, sliding up behind the man as he neared the door to his house.

Mercury stayed on the roof tops, keeping watch for anything, or anyone that might make their job harder. From their questioning around town, they found that this man was single, and lived alone; he was the kind of man no one would miss.

As the man's keys slid into the lock on the door, Emerald drew her weapons, the scythe-blade locking into place silently. It would be quick, she told herself; it would be easy, no one would know. The door to the old, rundown apartment opened slowly as her blade drew across his throat his blood spilling from the cut. Emerald looked up, just in time to see a tiny pair of sleepy eyes stare up at her, at them. Red eyes widened as the realization hit her, she had just orphaned a little girl; her body froze at that thought.

Seeing his partner lock up, Mercury dropped down, keeping his back to the residence; he knew that whatever was inside would likely have the same effect on him. The silver clad teen grabbed his partner and their target, spiriting them away into the night.

That sight would be burned into her memory for a long time; the sight of a little girl, couldn't be older than three or four years old, witnessing her kill her father. The look of fear and confusion in those innocent, blue eyes would haunt her dreams.


	10. Chapter 10

Power, that's what attracted her to him; it's what founded their partnership. She loved power, and he exuded it unlike anyone she'd ever met before. He held power over the elements; over giant snakes, ones even larger than the King Taijitu; he said he held power over life and death but that remained to be seen; and now, he held some power over the Grimm. He even held power over her… for now. She would have that power, for herself. For now though, she was content to be his source of relief, his amusement, his plaything; but when the time finally came, she would take that power for herself, for her own goals.

Their relationship was one of convenience, she had the resources he needed, and he had the talent and knowledge that she needed. Their sexual relationship was also one of convenience; they both had needs, and both were willing to fulfill them.

***Break***

After they had returned from their late night mission, Emerald and Mercury had placed the body into that creepy, special coffin Orochimaru had left for them. They had seen the man's work on living humans and faunus, they didn't want to know what he would do with a dead body. If he really could reanimate the dead, and bend them to his will, there'd be no telling the kind of havoc he could let loose on the world. An undead, and undying, army of Grimm at his command, he could conquer the world.

***Break***

Slowly her eyes drifted open, the darkness of the room she was in was gloomy, but it was safer than having windows. She looked across the bed for her partner, only to find herself alone… again. That could only mean that he was hard at work again. Running her fingers through her hair, she shuffled her feet over to the bathroom; she needed a shower after their activities last night.

The hot shower water felt glorious on her skin, washing away the aches and pains. As she did every morning, her eyes and hands inspected every inch of her porcelain skin, checking for any remaining bite marks or possible bruises; she liked it rough, but she didn't want the physical evidence on display for the world to see. Satisfied with her skin's perfection, she turned off the water and dried off. She toyed with the idea of foregoing clothes on her visit to his laboratory, but with the possibility of Emerald and Mercury showing up, she didn't want to risk it. She elected for her normal outfit; an off the shoulder crimson dress with gold embroidery, reaching down to the back of her knees, but cut up to her right hip; under the dress she wore black shorts, and glass, three inch heel slippers on her feet. Most didn't know that the golden embroidery concealed burn dust that she used to fuel her fiery attacks.

As she walked through his laboratory, she glanced at the different experiments residing on tables and in cages. There were several Grimm confined, their cages sitting next to ones that held humans and faunus. The prisoners had been tortured, both physically and mentally; the residual negative emotions seeming to feed the Grimm and keep them alive. Some part of her felt sorry for the prisoners they had captured, but progress demands sacrifice, and Orochimaru had been the first person to be able to actually control the Grimm.

The thing that really drew her attention was the newly added coffin in the corner of the room. Orochimaru had placed several seals on the ornate wooden box that contained the body Emerald and Mercury had procured the night before. Their report had been a little unsettling; she hadn't known about the small child, but there was nothing they could do now. She had placed an anonymous call to the local police to check on the child.

In the far back of the laboratory sat Orochimaru, the Snake Sannin; his sinister, amber eyes pouring over all of the information they had gathered so far. He was constantly looking between his Scroll, and those old paper scrolls he had brought with him from when he fled his homeland. He seemed to be cross-referencing the information, trying to figure out how to further combine chakra into the Grimm to increase their power, and his control. She would have asked why he needed the dead body, and why it had to be a fresh one instead of one of the prisoners they had already collected, but the last time she'd questioned his methods, he had almost snapped her neck.

His notes seemed to point more and more towards a theory he'd had about some connection between chakra and the Grimm. The theory also accounted for some power aura had over chakra. That blonde girl had used her aura on several occasions to disrupt the chakra paths coursing through the abominations they had created. But those specimens had been alive at the time of corruption. How did he intend to use a dead body to create a Grimm? She didn't understand how chakra worked, so she would have to wait and see whatever it was that he had planned.

A light flashed on her Scroll, she had a message. 'How is the plan progressing?' the message read. Her response was short and simple, 'Everything is on schedule.'

***Break***

Her training had been hard; Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Ren had been working to help her control her aura, trying to get the blonde to be able to form her attack on her own. It was a tedious process, Jiraiya's technique involved water balloons, rubber balls, and regular balloons; trying to burst the first two with her aura, and the third to contain the gathered energy inside the balloon without it bursting.

Kakashi's method involved visualizing the rotation in her head, but due to her lack of experience and fine control, she needed at least two hands to form the spinning ball.

Ren had her meditate, something that was naturally difficult for the energetic blonde; sitting still, trying to clear her mind, and focus, was not something that came easily.

Through the efforts of all three, she was making progress. She could form the ball with two hands, and maintain it as long as she could focus on it. She would need lots of practice to be able to generate the attack more rapidly, and preferably, only using one hand.

***Break***

While they were working on Yang's new attack, Might Gai had the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR doing physical training, he was a real stickler for hard work and dedication lifting someone above what natural talent brought.

At first, Pyrrha had been leagues ahead of the rest, her talent and hard work prior to meeting the Green Beast of Konoha had certainly benefited the red head, but she had started to plateau; she found it hard to push herself beyond where she was at.

Jaune on the other hand had been skyrocketing. His seeming lack of talent not holding him back after Gai had all but beaten the concept of hard work into the boy. Everything from his stamina to his fighting ability was improving; he could go toe-to-toe with Pyrrha in a spar for a good while before either of them gained a real advantage. He still hadn't discovered his semblance though.

Nora was almost a freak case; she was taking all the training with a smile; though her hyperactivity seemed to have been curbed by the constant hard work. She was improving though, her fighting style relying less and less on her hammer, just in case she were to lose it.

Weiss was struggling, being from a rich family had been a huge detriment to her natural stamina; the tutors that had pampered her, and catered to her ego, hadn't helped either; although, her determination to not be left behind was fantastic for improving her weaknesses.

Ruby was doing well, her rather innocent mindset fueling her determination. Her stamina hadn't been bad to begin with, but learning to not rely on her semblance had been difficult at first. Gai had made sure to focus on both hers, and Weiss's hand-to-hand fighting.

Blake was taking the training well, her fighting style was already similar to the shinobi fighting style; using deception to gain an upper hand, and making quick, precise strikes against her target. Shikamaru had taken particular interest in her semblance, studying it to see if there was a way to improve it, to make it something more than just a stepping stone, or a decoy. So far she had been able to increase the number of shadows she could create, up to a max of three; she quickly learned that increasing the number also increased the amount of aura they took to create. She also showed the potential to trade places with her shadows instantly, granting her a sort of shadow step. It would take years for her to be able to perform these abilities effectively in combat, but the potential was enough to drive her forward.

After their individual training had been completed, Gai suggested a six on one sparring match; he'd offered to let Shikamaru join the huntsman and huntresses, but the lazy shinobi had declined, preferring to observe and plan. Knowing that the teams had plenty of experience fighting together, Gai had chosen to pair the students between the teams under the reasoning that you won't always be paired with someone you know and already work well with. The teens had conceded to his logic, all of them remembering their initiation in the forest.

***Break***

Ozpin and Tsunade were currently in the middle of one of their many consultations; their current topic being that of the joint mission they were conducting. The report spoke of the additional three 'abominations' as Oobleck had chosen to call them, and how they had differed from the previous one. The new abilities they'd shown had concerned the Fifth Hokage; they were showing signs of bloodline traits. Ozpin had been interested in these special abilities that were passed down in families or clans. For that purpose, she had sent for Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuga to join their meeting. Both shinobi, now candidates for promotion to jounin in the next cycle, had demonstrated and explained their particular 'Kekkei Genkai.' The Headmaster had to admit that these sounded like very useful abilities, but they could also be dangerous if the wrong person got their hands on them.

They were also discussing the ability Yang had used against the regenerating abomination; that spinning ball of aura that had eradicated her enemy. Tsunade had recognized the technique it was based off of, but using something other than chakra for such an ability was unheard of in the shinobi nations or the kingdoms.

***Break***

He had been working on that dead body for hours now, drawing symbols on its skin, holding glowing hands over the symbols to push energy into them. The concept of imbuing energy into an object wasn't strange to her, but a dead body… that certainly was strange. Just what was he planning on doing? She had seen him use surgical tools on the body; he was altering it in some way.

Cinder had read some of Orochimaru's notes, it seems that chakra was the energy of the body, and aura was the energy of the soul. Aura was more powerful, but tended to appear in smaller quantities. Chakra, depending on the person, could be bolstered to insane levels, allowing for the users to creat things like fireballs, or even greater things. The major downside, it seemed, was that chakra manipulation training had to be started early in life, or else the person's reserves would be unable to produce enough of the energy to manifest the attacks, while aura could be unlocked at almost any age.

This topic would require further study on her part; she had another report to send.

***Break***

"Ok, let's try smashing yours into mine," Kakashi said, holding up his rasengan; now that Yang seemed to be getting the hang of forming her aura sphere attack on her own it was time to test it to see how it the two abilities would react to each other.

"Right," the blonde girl said, holding her golden sphere… she really had to come up with a name for this thing… out in her hand; Kakashi made the same motion, the two of them, and Jiraiya watching the reaction intently.

As the blue and golden orbs met, there was no explosion, as they had thought, instead Yang's seemed to dissipate Kakashi's attack. The copy shinobi suddenly grabbed his arm, as if in pain, despite no physical indicators.

"It feels like… like the chakra in my arm was being pushed out," he said, as the pain quickly subsided.

"Hmmm, it looks like what you said the Kyubi told you is true Yang," the Toad Sage spoke up. "It seems like aura dispels chakra. That would explain its effectiveness on the Grimm, especially those abominations you fought," he finished.

"But it still doesn't explain why or how Orochimaru is doing all this," Yang said, she wanted to make the snake sannin pay for all of the lives he'd ruined.

"We'll figure that out, don't worry Yang," Kakashi reassured the blonde brawler. "Now I think it's time we rejoined the rest of the group. With that, the four of them traveled to where Gai was conducting the training with the rest of teams RWBY and JNPR.

***Break***

The sight that greeted them was an interesting one. The remaining members of teams RWBY and JNPR were sprawled out on the ground in pairs. Ruby was next to Pyrrha, Weiss with Nora, and Blake with Jaune. All six teens were panting heavily, clearly exhausted from the training they'd been doing. Seeing this, Yang grew a mischievous smirk on her face. "Awww… looks like the fun parts over, they already put their clothes back on," she teased, earning various reactions from her friends; Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby blushed, sputtering their denials; Weiss glared at her while Blake blushed silently; Nora laughed out loud.

Yang looked up from the prone teens, seeing Gai giving their group his signature 'Good Guy' pose. Looking over at Ren, she smirked at the green clad boy, taking up her fighting stance. Ren sighed, asking himself why he had to do this. Both teens returned their gaze to Konoha's Green Beast. Yang rushed ahead first, drawing the jounin's attention to herself. The two traded a few blows before a strong kick sent the blonde skidding backwards. She quickly got back up, charging again, using her weapons to launch herself forward faster

Meanwhile, Ren had taken the opportunity to slip into Gai's blind spot, hiding there to wait for the right time to strike.

The other six teenagers sat up, watching the two fight, Pyrrha and Weiss taking note of what was going on. Yang, being the loud, strong, and durable one, was keeping the attention on herself. Ren was using his aura control to minimize the noise he made as he moved around behind the jounin.

After a few solid kicks and punches had knocked her away, Yang's semblance was starting to build up, her eyes were glowing red, and her hair was shining with golden fire. The brawler and the Green Beast were trading blows fairly evenly now, neither one really gaining the upper hand. Both fighters launched punches towards the other's face, only to be caught by their other hand. Gai smiled proudly, while Yang smirked, the mischief in her eyes raising suspicion in the older man.

Gai tensed up when he felt a hand on the back of his head, and another on his back, right where his heart was. "Do you concede?" Ren asked, seeing the taller man's shoulders relax as his arms fell to his sides.

"Haha! Good job you two, excellent work!" Gai responded, his bright smile ever present on his face. With his own small smile, Ren lowered his hands and turned to walk towards Nora and the rest of their team. Yang wore a victorious grin on her face as she ventured to her team. Helping her teammates off the ground, the group headed back to town; they hadn't found any more nests in the area, but with the threat of Orochimaru still looming overhead, they had to be prepared, in case he chose to attack.

***Break***

Finally. He was finally finished with the work he'd been doing on that corpse. As he closed the coffin, he placed some strange seals on the wood, watching them glow before the entire box sunk into the ground. 'What was that? Some strange burial ritual?' Shaking her head, Cinder didn't want to think too much on it, she hadn't been able to gather too much more information for her report, the man was very thorough in his work; always making sure to clean his tools and return them to their proper place. He kept his notes close to his person at all times, and when he was done writing or studying them, he would make them vanish into one of the strange tattoos on his arms. The only times she could catch a glance was when he allowed her flirtatious advances. While unable to report on his current project, she had been able to make her own notes about his previous ones, the Phases One through Three. Despite their destruction, they had been successful in controlling the Grimm; the Atlesian Domination chips had sent back bountiful amounts of information during the fights. Soon they would have all they needed to control the Grimm and hopefully put an end to their dealings with Orochimaru.

***Break***

The next day played out pretty much like the previous one, the teams spending a couple hours training, then eating, then searching out for more Grimm in the hopes of finding any clues to what Orochimaru was up to. Kakashi, Jiraiya and Shikamaru were giving their report to Tsunade and Ozpin when the teams left the village with Gai and Oobleck.

After cleaning up a few small packs of beowolves, the group came upon a cave with an unusual glow emanating from deep within. The teams looked between each other, silently debating on whether or not to go in. Seeing no objections, the group moved in pairs into the entrance. Yang and Pyrrha were in the front, both front line fighters better suited to handling an enemy charge. Weiss and Ren were behind them, the heiress for elemental support, and Ren for his aura sensing abilities. Behind them were Ruby and Blake, both quick, agile fighters able to help out where needed. In the back were Nora and Jaune, to protect their group from an ambush. Oobleck was zipping around, searching the walls for any indication of a trap or any knowledge he could gather from this situation. Gai, was between Yang and Pyrrha, and Weiss and Ren.

Despite the light at the end, the cave itself was rather dark inside as they moved farther inward. Weiss had used a small amount of burn dust to light a torch Pyrrha had made. The group moved slowly down the cave tunnel with weapons at the ready. The strange purple light grew bigger and brighter the closer they got, as well as the sense of dread that came with it. The group finally reached the end of the tunnel, and the room there. There were two objects in the room, a coffin with strange symbols glowing on it, and a chair with the room's one occupant. In the chair sat a tall, pale man with long black hair and amber eyes with slits for pupils. The man wore dark clothing, and a long white coat. The man had a taste of evil, and hatred floating off of him as he sat in his chair, reading his book as if he had no knowledge of his guests. From the coffin a faint, yet feverish pounding could be heard, as if someone, or something, was desperate to escape.

"You know, it's rude to enter someone's place without being invited," the man said, not lifting his eyes from the book he was reading; his voice bearing a slight resemblance to that of a snake.

"Orochimaru," Gai said as he stepped forward, taking up his fighting stance. "We are placing you under arrest for the crimes you have committed," he finished, keeping his gaze locked on his target.

The deep, evil sounding laugh the Snake Sannin let out caused Teams RWBY and JNPR to take a step backwards; they had all read the reports on how strong Orochimaru was, and it would be better for all of them not to fight in this cramped cave. "You have more immediate worries at hand," he responded, closing his book and placing his hand on the coffin. Symbols spread out from the wooden box; the pounding was replaced, briefly, with muffled screams. The coffin lid slowly opened, revealing a tall man with ghostly pale skin, black hair, and glowing red eyes; the man's mouth was covered by cloth bandages, he wore cloth warmers on his forearms. His pants were tattered slightly, and he wore no shirt; his weapon was a giant sword. Gai was the only one of the group to recognize the man, it was someone that had disappeared from the Elemental Nations years ago after Kakashi and his team had run into him in the Land of Waves. The man was Zabuza Momochi.


End file.
